Tiger in the Sunset
by MysteryFictions
Summary: How far would you go to protect your loved ones? And if you couldn't how would you get your revenge? This is a remake to my previous story, I have come up with a much better plot. Do tell me what you think of it? I did this with what free time I had.
1. Prologue

**Tiger in the Sunset**

 **Part One**

 **Prologue**

 _She would always feel comfort in the soothing rays of sun basking over her Caramel tanned skin. The salty scent of the water as the waves rolled over the alabaster sand. Her charcoal hair mopping down her shoulders and brown eyes to accommodate her beautiful complexion. She was just a young girl, but the age of fifteen. On the verge of the age in which she would be married off to another warrior in the Rakyat tribe._

 _Darkened Tattoos glistened in sweat over her surface, their curvy lengths, dips, and spirals molded into her neck and diving beneath the strap of her blue tank top. Shorts following with long slender legs from her wide hips and a flat stomach. Her mother always told her she would be a fine bride as always on the island it was the woman's responsibility to provide a child and care for them in every way possible to create better warriors for the oncoming age._

 _Lunetta Rodrigo, however was so much different from the other girls in the tribe. She was much smarter, more agile, and pugnacious. She had a free spirit, but not a free body and yet she dreamed of such physical freedom, she had none. Her father worked as a mechanic and her mother a nurse for the village warriors of Amanaki. She had a five year old brother named Barsul, he had similar features to her, but carried a very gruff look like her father; who sported a grey beard and mustache, along with a pot belly._

 _Her mother was the fairest woman in all the village and the island, she gave so willingly... But for many days Lunetta knew that her mother was not well. Her mother usually carried a fresh look and undeniable beauty that many had come to admire, but dark circle grew under her eyes, she sweated profusely on a daily basis, and her hands... They would tremble._

 _Her brother was too young to understand, but Lunetta knew that her mother took medication for the sickness she carried, whatever sickness that may be. She observed her mother's every move unlike her drunkard of a father and when her mother ever stumbled or called for help, she was the first to assist._

 _On those few days when Lunetta wasn't training to become a slave, she would come to the shore of the east and watch the sun go down. It was a sight she would never forget, a sight that would never grow old. Whence the sun disappeared, she would take leave before the depth of darkness consumed the island entirety. Through vines and jungle foliage she had made it home to Amanaki in time for dinner, but there was something wrong... A dullness to the usual lively village._

 _The long wooden table of assorted fruits and meat was untouched, but the lanterns still glowed brightly and the wind had picked up its speed. Carefully brushing a few strands of hair behind her ear, Lunetta strode forward towards her shanty. Keeping a cautious eyes out for unexpected dangers that lurked through the night._

 _Entering the small house, she was met with the sight of an empty kitchen and no food had taken its place in it. Her mother would usually have made the food already by the time she had gotten back. Anxiety met her and she froze at the sound of sobbing, coming directly from the open door across the desolate living room. Her parent's room._

 _Lunetta wasted no time running across the house to reach the living quarters, upon peaking around the door frame she panicked. There on the bed alone rested her mother, in a much worse condition than Lunetta had ever seen her. Her brother laid on one side of her, holding her hand firmly. There was no sight of her father. Her mother's milky hair spilled around the tainted pillow, she noticed Lunetta's presence, urging her forward with a weak hand gesture and slight simper._

 _Lunetta knew nothing about cowardice and instead of running for her father who might not even be around, she stepped forward. Cautious steps, sorrowful steps, she wasn't afraid because her mother was dying, because she would never hear her mother's sweet voice... She was crying because for a fact she knew not where her mother would be the moment her soul had left her body. It scared her greatly and all she hoped was that there was a greater place beyond this, whether there be god, or not... She hoped._

 _Taking her place alongside her mother she wove her fingers through hers. Her mother held that smile that seemed arduous for her exhausted features. Dark circles under her eyes and perspired skin, it killed her inside to know her mother would not die beautiful in spirit and body._

 _"Where is papa?"_

 _"He is gone." Her mother muttered with a scratchy voice, but remained smiling. It was almost as if, she knew, she knew everything was gonna be okay... Even if it wasn't, it was because she knew it would be that made you somehow feel better._

 _"To where?"_

 _"He left the Island Luna." Lunetta contained the pain she felt in her heart at those words, the idea that her father never cared was hard to accept, he never cared before, but to succumb to that truth was difficult. "But you are strong my little one and for this, I ask you to promise me something." Lunetta leaned forward. "Take care of your brother, do what you wish with your life... Leave this place, or stay it does not matter to me... As long as where you are you are happy and safe... For both... Of you..." He mother glanced over at her brother, who was still trying to understand the meaning his mother was trying to create. He didn't know what death was yet, it had not occurred to him, his mother would be gone forever. "I love you both." A small tear trailed down her cheek as her breath went ragged slowly and her hands grew less strong and soft as they had always been before. Lunetta saw the spirit leave her mother's eyes and the warmth drain from her hand, lids slowly closing over the once vibrant blue._

 _She made no expression in return, instead her instincts instantly kicked in. She knew not where to go, what to do, how to survive alone with only her five year old brother to care for. She simply did the unthinkable, she merely looked away, stood up and left the room. She was thinking more about plans than death and that is what created the woman she became... That is what made her a Tigress._


	2. 1:The Routine

**Chapter 1: The Routine**

 **Four years later...**

"Niño, get up we have to go!" Lunetta complained in exasperation as she tossed the eggs she had made down on a plate. She had grown use to taking care of herself and her brother, she had learned how to fight, how to hunt, and how to basically live in the jungle without a man's protection. This did not mean there was no consequence for the stress that came on her. She had to pay weekly taxes to the Pirates to prevent them from raiding the shanty and the garage that she worked at as a mechanic.

Dark circles resided under her eyes, her hair had been cut short up to an inch, to allow easier maintenance. She wore sloppy clothing, a black sports bra and sweat pants, followed with ragged Nike sneakers. The tattoos extending from her neck down towards her chest had grown in considerable size, the tattoos now scrolling down her right side and sprouting into her nether regions. She had fit into a much more mature figure than in her earlier years, silky hips, and angular features along with plump breasts dropping down into a muscular stomach. She had trained herself to be strong and although she had sacrificed a lot to gain that strength, she had left those days behind.

"Barsul, get the hell in here now! We are going to be late." She yelled louder this time, placing the plate of eggs down at his seat. The young boy rushed in, his skimpy form fleeing to take the wooden chair at his side of the table while she placed down the glasses of orange juice calmly, sitting across from him.

He began scarfing down his food, a bob of black hair fluffy and unattended to sat atop his head. His tan shorts were barely buttoned up. Lunetta couldn't help but simper, he would never learn, would he?

"Slow down, muchacho. You'll choke on your food." She stated as she made no movement to look up at him and began to eat her food. "Are you excited?"

"No... I'm nervous, very much hermana. What if she doesn't pick me?" Lunetta snorted, nearly choking on her food herself.

"I don't see your concern. I'm sure Citra would make no mistake in seeing how brave you are and strong you will become."

"But what if she doesn't choose me." Lunetta sighed, she had never been through such a ceremony, the day her mother died was the day she gave up the Arakyat, but since Barsul was meeting that age, he was expected to be chosen by Citra to be one of her many great warriors and train in the years to come, possibly to marry a young woman training to carry children for the tribe.

"I would love you no less. Besides, I don't think it would be so bad if I tought you myself." She took a sip of her orange juice while watching the young boy poke his fork at his food.

"All the others think I'm weak." Lunetta's eyebrows furrowed, she placed her glass down and watched him with a frown.

"What others?"

"The other boys, doing the ceremony. They say Citra won't choose me."

"You know..." Lunetta bit her bottom lip, attempting to come up with a comforting response. "Vaas Montenegro was a very skinny and naive boy like yourself once, now look at him." Although Lunetta had never seen Vaas in all her years, she knew that he had become the pirate lord of the island and was greatly feared by his men. Despite him once being the worst warrior in the Arakyat tribe at a young age. She didn't condone his actions against the natives, but he was once weak and now he was strong.

"I don't want to be like Vaas though. I want to be like you."

"Then you must practice. If she doesn't pick you, there will always be time for you to be your own self. Be independent and apart of your own faction." At those words she could see the hint of a smile on Barsul's lips. She took one last bite and sat up with her plate, placing it in the sink. She turned to Barsul.

"Good, now. I have to go, don't forget I left some venison in the freezer for later. You have to-"

"I know, put it in the oven and turn it on." He recited mockingly, Lunetta placed her hands on her hips and smirked.

"At what temperature?"

"Four-Hundred and Fifty for Twenty minutes."

"Then?" Lunetta made her way over to the car keys hanging from the wall on a hook.

"Take it out and let simmer."

"Good boy. I'll be back around-"

"Nine. I know the drill and if anything happens there is a security phone beneath the bed."

"Buena. Me amo Barsul. Good luck with your initiation today." Upon stepping out and into the fresh air of the Amaniki jungle her peace was interrupted by that of a feigned cough. She rolled her eyes and looked to her left, only to find none other than Tanik Gara himself.

Tanik Gara was a warrior of the Rakyat. A man who had no common sense, constantly trying to gain any chance at Lunetta's affections. He had long black hair tied back into a bun, wore cutoff Jean button ups and camo pants tucked into boots, red tattoos scattered all over his body.

"Good morning, my beauty and how are you today?" His British accent weighing on each word.

"I was doing fine until you showed up." Lunetta groaned running a hand through her short strands.

"You won't feel that way once I give you my offer."

"Which is?" He sneakily waltzed over to her, stopping an inch from her, before she could step back his hand had caught a tight grip on her forearm. In shock she stared into his desire filled eyes, wishing that she would not have to use brutal force on anyone today.

"Let me go."

"Or what? I am here because I love you Luna. We would make great children together."

"I don't want kids." Lunetta growled between gritted teeth, struggling to tear her arm from his unrelenting grip.

"What can I do to make you see what you truly need?" She was growing with frustration and considering just swooping him out now without a single warning. She hated it when suitors came her way, but for Tanik it had become a daily routine. She didn't like the fact that he told her what she wanted, that he was ugly, and that all he thought she would be was submissive.

"I know exactly what I need and you are definitely not in that category."

"Then perhaps what you want. I'm sure to be in that one." He purred into her face, allowing her a smell of his sour breath. She rolled her eyes again, angling her head away.

"Oh please! If I had wanted you, I would have been with you much earlier, but I don't want anyone so at least live with that."

"I may be your only exception. How else will you carry on your family name? Your father-" She punched him square across the jaw with her free hand. He released her stumbling back, her fists clenched and obvious rage in her eyes.

"Don't you ever mention my father again. Get the fuck out of my face." Tanik looked up at her, holding his now sore jaw, he glared scornfully at her and grunted.

"You will regret this Luna. You will soon accept me, whether it be now, or then. I will get you." He promised before running away, Lunetta stood there, contemplating whether or not it would be a good idea to go to work or stay until Barsul leaves. She had a feeling that something was wrong, that something heinous was going to happen... She sighed loudly, pushing the thought away, her own instinct for the first time and continuing on towards the village entrance.

The garage was fit for one car, with an assortment of random tool boxes and equipment lining the walls, it was honestly a mess. Lunetta was too busy to find the time to clean it, knowing it would be arduous work if she did. She stepped into the garage which was the extension of a gas station, not far from the Amaniki village. Her black jeep parked out in the front, dry mud lining the edges and windshield.

When she entered she grabbed the fingerless gloves and blue bandana that laid on top of the wooden workbench across from the entrance into the garage. Rolling the gloves on ad wrapping the bandana around her forehead, she went to work. She walked over to the check that list that resided in a small room cut off from the garage. It was a list full of people who needed their cars fixed, they would come to her or she would go to meet them and fix the problem.

Considering that there was always plenty of issues occurring with vehicles on the island, the list was very long. She sighed leaned forward onto her elbow, digging her palm into her chin as her eyes lazily scanned the list. There at the bottom of the list, in fine print written was Benny in big scrabbled letters.

This brought a smile to her face. Benny might have been a pirate, but Lunetta loved talking to him. Simply because he was funny. It wasn't like they liked each other, but it was however that they were at an understanding. Pirates on the island were mostly Natives, they had trouble providing for themselves so they worked as plunderers and murderers to support their families. Some of them were still young and merely there to waste their lives away in laziness.

She didn't hate the Pirates and she didn't hate the Rakyat, in fact the only reason she allowed Barsul to train to be a warrior was because it was tradition. It was in his blood, like her father, who he hopefully would not end up like. She placed the list down and almost coincidentally a red jeep drove up.

She left the small section to walk out from the garage and greet the man named Benny. He was a short, but muscular guy. He had dyed blonde fro hair and tan skin. He wore cheap store bought sunglasses and the usually pirate attire, a red tank top and cargo pants. Lunetta crossed her arms and leaned on a leg as he approached her. The two glared at each other for a moment before high giving and giving hugs.

"How you doing? You were here last week, can't you ever keep your care nice?" Lunetta exclaimed, he chuckled giving her a playful shove.

"It's not my fault. We go through a lot of jungle foliage and shit."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya." She replied, they both walked over to the car.

"So how are you doing?"

"I've been alright I guess." She opened the hood, a whole bunch of black smoke releasing from beneath it. Both of them made a cough, swatting at the venomous gases that left the vehicle.

"Holy shit Ben, what the fuck did you do?!" When the smoke had cleared up Lunetta was back at the hood.

"I don't fucking know. Don't yell at me!" Once Lunetta swiftly investigated the issue, she made a groan, huffing and blowing a few short strands of hair from her face.

"Jesus Christ bendejo. The fucking engine is fried."

"Well, how was I supposed to fucking know? I can pay for it."

"This is gonna take me two days at the least. If the engine isn't permanently fucked."

"And if it is?" He crossed his arms staring strictly at her, he always made it seem that it was her fault his car was complete shit.

"Then we are gonna have to get a new one."

"How much is that gonna cost?" She leaned her back into the car and took a moment to sum up the prices.

"As much as this car."

"Fuck man!" He kicked the car which most likely could have brought on more damage, cursing in mumbled Spanish.

"I can't do anything about it. Let's take it in and see what we have got, okay?" He nodded his head, after pushing the vehicle into the garage. Lunetta began to investigate more of the damage, he sat in a spinning chair that was part of the small office.

"So, what can I drive with now?"

"You can use my car." She replied nonchalantly without looking over at him, instead grunting as she pulled the cap off the ignition.

"Really? You would do that for me?"

"I don't use it anyways. Only to get to and from work..." She glanced at him with a terse expression. "But I swear if you-"

"I won't fuck up your car." He grinned, raising his hands in defense. "And thanks."

"No problem. Keys are on the workbench." Benny stood and retrieved the keys, tossing them lightly in his hands.

"You don't mind if I paint your jeep red, do you?"

"I very much do mind, if you do I will kill you." She was unfazed with the words leaving her lips, digging her left arm in between the many wires and parts that made up the engine, she grunted yanking out a large branch and holding it up to him. "What the fuck do you do with this car?"

"I do a lot of shit with it." He began to move his toe in a circluar pattern on the sidewalk, he chuckled to himself and itched the back of his head. "Like last week Vaas and I brought some sexy bi-" He stopped when he saw Lunetta's glare. "Anyways I have to go, Vaas is expecting me at pirate's cove so I could help him with the ransom tapes."

"Sure, just go. You've made me pissed off already. Be careful with my car and be back tomorrow so we can figure this shit out."

"Alright, alright. Tell Barsul I said hello, yeah?" He shouted as he walked away towards her jeep.

"Yeah right." She muttered under her breath, making an exhausted look at the car. "Well, I might as well remove the engine." She whispered to herself, getting to work as fast as possible.


	3. 2:Loss

**Chapter 2: The Pain**

After hours of heavy lifting and part exchanging, Lunetta could feel her aching limps carry her back home, but thought nothing of it. It was ten minutes past nine. Her once clean skin was covered in motor oil and the likes. Her short, thin hair was puffed out like a marshmallow and even darker circles remained beneath her eyes.

She dragged herself down alongside the lonely trail, the crickets singing their jungle song, the full moon shining up into the sky. She rose a hand to yank away the bandanna following with her head, she looked up at a gleaming light off in the distance, it was fragile, but bright, glowing all around it. The darkness made in difficult for her to see, but she could make out faint shadow running through the light, her eyes squinted to get a clearer image.

Her heart froze when she suddenly realized that it was the village and the light was a fire. She dropped her bandanna and her mind forced her body to run forward. She was sprinting as fast as she could towards the village entrance, loud screams sinking into her ears as people ran to and fro to avoid the wild flames.

When entering the village she dodged several other villagers, crying and sobbing as a few held their burnt limbs. The entire village was cast in a flame of auburn orange, blinding to those who looked to long. She ran toward the shanty that was nearly submerged in flames, hers.

"BARSUL!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, pacing violently back and forth to find a better way into the home. The light illuminating the sweat that perspired from her skin. She wasted not a second longer when a portion of the patio collapsed as flames devoured its rotten wood. She leapt forward over the flames onto the deck, feeling the blazing heat creep up her legs.

She swatted as it burned and singed the material, warming the skin beneath. She ripped her pants off carelessly, kicking a shoe-clad foot at the door. It fell backward onto the floor easily, she entered the home looking around for any sign of her young brother.

"BARSUL!" She screeched, looking back and forth before jogging from room to room in a breathless pant. She came upon her mother's room finding that the ceiling had concave into the area, from waist down in the debris laid her brother, limp and covered in soot and ash.

"Fuck!" Lunetta cried out, doing all she could to push the wooden planks off of his body. She yanked at his arms, wrapping her arms around his chest she attempted to lift him, but nothing would work.

Tears fell from her dreaded soul as she used all the strength she had, her muscles straining under the weight. She fell on her knees beside her brother, slapping his cheeks lightly to wake him.

"Please, please!" She sobbed, a distant hand running down to the nap of his throat and her heart sunk... There was no heartbeat any more, her brother was dead. Staring down at his lifeless body, she felt guilty. She should have been there, she should have held him, and told him everything would be alright, she should have protected him.

Smoke roamed through the room and the fire spread, Lunetta had little time to contemplate escape. She tried one last time to pull her brother's dead body from his fiery grave. All the while feeling distinct sorrow and pain run through her every morsel. She gave up, she was too weak to save him and she gave up. She sniffled, one last tug and she fell back. The remaining beams of the roof clattering down onto his unconscious body, proving it more difficult to free his dead corpse.

"Barsul! No!" She whimpered, looking around and considering to just lay there, but she felt herself crave revenge. She torridly lifted herself up and ran from the room, she found no exit anywhere aside from the glass window directly beside the door.

She hesitated, looking back from her mother's room... To the window. She felt like she was leaving him, betraying him. She did what she had to do though, she jumped through the window, over the fire. Falling onto all fours, tiny shards of glass scattered across the ground stuck into her skin. Her face formed into a scowl and almost like a cat she hopped up to her feet, stepping over the glass.

She glanced behind her at the burning house, what was once her home was falling apart, her entire life lost. She had no one left, she had no where to go. She felt like she had abandoned her life, or maybe her life had abandoned herself. Her face was wet with tears which she generously wiped away. She suddenly felt nauseous at the idea that she had left Barsul's body to burn, a sickeningly fit death considering her mother had died in the exact same room. The thought that she had no one left, that she had failed... Her eyes drifted shut and she fell to the ground with a loud thump. Her consciousness lost and mind in a far worse place to be.

 _A young Lunetta looked at the collapsed cake in front of her, a year had passed since her mother died and her coward of a father left. It was her duty to take care of her brother in every way she could and make sure that he was provided with a happy life. She had attempted to make a cake, but sadly had gotten no where with it as when she removed it from the pan it sunk into itself._

 _Lunetta sighed at the sight, she had prepared icing too sweet to be considered edible and the mini decorations she had arranged were made out of little sticks and flower petals. She pushed the plate containing the cake aside and instead opened the oven for the cupcakes, hoping that they would have at least turned out like food._

 _However, her luck was tried and the cupcakes had burned. She grunted angrily kicking the oven shut and spinning around, not expecting to find her little brother standing there and looking up at her. She nearly gasped out in shock as she was so rarely snuck up on._

 _"Are you alright, Hermano?" She asked soothingly, crouching down in front of him and staring him in the eyes. He was not happy at all, here she was expecting he wouldn't have been home so early, instead celebrating with the other young kids in the village. He held a grieving look, a sour face, a broken heart._

 _"No... I am just..." She knew what he was thinking about, but was too afraid to face that fact. She wasn't good at this care taking thing, in fact she knew nothing about children, about how to take care of one aside from herself._

 _"I know." Was all she replied and her brother was nestled in her arms within a second, wrapped limbs around her neck. She wrapped her arms around him and instead of showing no emotion, she cried too. She cried and let all those emotions she failed to do a year ago. He held her tightly because she was all he had, she was supposed to protect him, love him, teach him..._

 _She failed._

"Ahhhh!" She shot up from her sleep, recognizing that she was in a small makeshift bed. Eyes wide open with a crusty exterior, she jumped from the bed. Vigorously running her hands up and down her arms, warming her skin which was glazed with a cold sweat and scanning the room. Posters and random photographs hung from the walls and she immediately recognized where she was.

It was a shack off the edge of the Amaniki village, she noticed bandages wrapped down from her knuckles to her forearm. Just then noticing the pain that rippled through her body, along with the discordant memories. She trembled, teeth chattering and she covered her mouth sobbing into her hand. She held her body tightly feeling how every emotion was running through her.

A hand grasped her shoulder and she jolted around, a hand snatching out to grab a wrinkly throat and the other ready to strike. Tears cascaded down her cheeks almost infinitely. She looked into the eyes of the man who had touched her in a comforting manner. An old man with lots of wrinkles, crystal blue eyes, and grey hair. He held his hands up, stuttering before words left his lips.

"I-I am sorry. I c-came to check on you." She roughly shoved him away taking a stride back and crossing her arms.

"Who are you?" She ground out through clench teeth, having not understood how she ended up here.

"I am D-Dr Earnhardt." He nervously rubbed his hands together. "I was stopping by at the village yesterday, when the jungle warriors-" Lunetta came forward grabbing the collar of the doctor's button up shirt.

"What fucking jungle warriors?" She snarled enraged with the assumption that it was Rakyat who burned the village.

"The Rakyat... I found you on the ground and brought you here, healed your wounds and such... Are you okay?"

"No." She released him gently, realization coming to her. She felt so angry, if she was a cartoon you could see red in her eyes, a vein pulsed from her temple.

"Those fucking urchins. I'm gonna kill all those fucking..." In her state of rage, her words mumbled off into broken Spanish and the doctor appeared completely confused and afraid. He watched as the young girl paced back and forth muttering in Spanish to herself, until finally leaving the shack and him in his silence. He had only seen one other act as she had and that man was someone he did not want to associate himself with.

"Oh dear... I can't take this anymore..."


	4. 3:Game Plan

**Chapter 3: Game Plan**

The peaceful jungle song was interrupted by the loud music of Cake blasting from the radio of Lunetta's vehicle, the driver thrashing his head holding a phone to his ear.

"Don't worry Boss. I got it handled. The shipment will be made within the next hour." He shouted into the phone over the loud music, one lazy hand on the wheel turning it and spinning it to the curves and turns of the sandy road. "I know, I know. Don't fuck it up this time. You tell me that every- No I'm not talking back sir." Benny answered in a dull undertone. "I swear I won't mess up... Yes sir... Bye sir." Benny hung up the phone with a heavy exhale, tossing the electronic into the back seat.

He pulled up to the gas station, for some reason the garage wasn't open and this put him on alert as it was always open at this time of day. He exited the vehicle, slamming the car door behind him, his hand immediately rested on his weapon, his eyes narrowed from the other side of the glasses. He always was cautious for the Arakyat considering he was a pirate and they had a talent for Gorilla warfare.

He took slow strides towards the building, each step increased the anxiety, the anticipation. When he reached the door and peaked into the garage, he could hear the distinct sobbing originating from the small office. He quickly walked over to find Lunetta sitting in a blob on the floor, sobbing into her knees, with a gun held tightly in her hand.

"Lunetta, what the fuck?!" She shot her head up to look at him, he stepped forward, but the click of the gun being turned from safety made him freeze.

"Lunetta, what is going on?"

"They killed him Ben... It was all my fault and I just, I deserve to die. I didn't protect him-" Benny lunged forward when the barrel of the gun was pressed to her forehead, before her finger could graze the trigger he pushed it up sending a strident gunshot to echo through the garage.

He tore the gun from her hand, carelessly tossing it to the side and slapping her in the face. She stopped crying, staring wide eyed at him, crouched beside her.

"Tell me what happened so I can understand." He calmly began.

"Um..." She sniffled looking down at her thumbs as she fiddled with them on her knees. "Barsul, he's dead." She remained nonchalant at that point, staring blankly into her thumbs as though they were the only thing around, a single tear drifting down one cheek, but in the stillest manner.

"How?"

"A fire... Those..." Her hands gripped up at her short hair tugging at them. "Fucking Rakyat Bitches, burned Amaniki to the ground! All because of ME!" She hit her fist harshly across her chest to make her point, a red face she stared at Benny who looked into her glistening eyes. He stood up placing his hands on his hips, not having the words to say, he merely gestured to the gun. Her eyes went from the weapon back to him in question, eyebrows furrowing under the sorrow in her face.

"Kill yourself if you think that's going to stop the people that murdered your brother." She wiped her tears away with shaking hands.

"I have become weak Benny... I deserve no longer to live."

"Then do it. Kill yourself, but you'll never get the revenge you want." He crouched down beside her as much as he hated to admit it, he loved Lunetta. He couldn't just leave her here to kill herself, she would never let him do that or at least he hoped she wouldn't.

"What do you want me to do then? There is nothing I can do... The Rakyrat are far too powerful for me to fight alone."

"Then don't fight them alone..." Benny stopped to thoughtfully think about the consequences to what he was about to suggest to her, but quickly pushing them to the side out of arrogance. "Join Vaas and the Pirates-"

"Are you kidding?" She scowled at Benny. "I have heard stories about Vaas and he is not as nice a man as you make him out to be. He will kill me, if not have his men rape me."

"Where the fuck is that strong woman I once knew? I am a pirate, did I rape you? Did I shoot you when you called me an asshole."

"No... You didn't and for that I don't understand." She averted her eyes to the concrete ground, he plopped down beside her and wrapped an arm around her neck.

"I've seen you hunt, I've seen you shoot, and fight. If the others can see that, if you can show them... They won't kill you, you'll earn their fear and respect."

"And when our work is done? When they are all wiped out?"

"Then you can die... Then you have nothing left to live for, but until then we can help you, Vaas can help you like he helped me." Lunetta looked up into his eyes. "He showed me how crappy life is, but how great you can make it."

* * *

Benny drove up to the edge of the beach, where a large ship resided, anchor dug into the sand, and wooden boxes being carried by pirates up on board. Urchins stuck beneath the heavy metal the bound together making the bow of the ship. Men walked to and fro in search of things, all of which were wearing heavy set gear and carrying weapons, most paced around randomly as though they had no job other than to stand there. The sun was just barely visible over the shoreline, the sky filled with vibrant hues that made up the sunset.

"Stay here. I have to go and handle this." He exited the vehicle slamming the car door behind him and approaching a somehow familiar man standing on the beach.

He wore a black blazer over a red collar shirt and jeans that fell over boots. He had dark hair and tan skin, his wrinkles visible in the sunlight from afar. He wasn't exactly a tall man, but he obviously had authority. Lunetta quickly connected him to the name Hoyt, who was the drug boss over Vaas and the wrongful owner of the islands. Benny approached him with a casual smile, shaking his hand and exchanging a short conversation with him in which they both seemed to abridge.

She let out a huff, her head falling back into the leather rest. She sat there for thirty minutes waiting, it was the most boring thing she had ever done in her life. However there was nothing stopping her from leaving the vehicle, not even Benny's words could do that. So she stepped out of the car, leaving the door wide open, she walked over to Benny and by assumption the man named Hoyt.

A man side stepped her, blocking her path. His attire similar to those of the men that were hard at work, he must have been one of Hoyt's men.

"Sorry sweetheart, whore house is the other way." Lunetta had been through so much, she wasn't about to take shit from an American son of a bitch she barely knew. Her fists clenched as she prepared to make a strike.

"Excuse me?!" She ground out, the man made no move, obviously not aware of the physical agony she could inflict on him. Benny luckily coming between them, when he noticed Lunetta was not where he told her to remain.

"I told you to stay in the truck." She rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, but I can't just sit there forever. I have other things to do."

"Listen." He tried to sound frank, placing his hands on her shoulders with a grip that had warning written all over it. "I understand you want your revenge, but that shit takes time." He whispered to her, looking nervously from side to side. "Now go back to the-"

"Who is your friend Ben?"

"Shit." He muttered under his breath, turning to face his boss with a feigned smile. "Her name is Lunetta... She um..."

"Your slave?"

"Who said anything about me being owned by anyone?" She angrily snapped in the man's direction nearly leaping forward at him, Benny held an arm out to keep her from causing anymore trouble.

"A feisty one. Pretty though, if she deems useless to you, she could be sold for a mighty price."

"I don't think-"

"Lunetta! Get back in the fucking car!" Benny interrupted again, fuming over her naivety at the moment. If Hoyt knew too much about her, then her life would be in danger and she would never be able to live it the way she wanted. He glanced over his shoulder as she stomped away, being sure she was at a safe distance, he glanced back to Hoyt.

"I apologize about her. She's been through a lot lately."

"What is her significance to you?"

"A friend. I'm going to make her a pirate." Hoyt giggled maniacally slapping a playful hand at Benny's shoulder, who remained blank.

"Good luck with that. I have taught Vaas to look at a woman only as property. He won't accept her unless she drops her panties for him." Benny stubbornly crossed his arms, now feeling the challenge behind Hoyt's words.

"I'm sure, but this one is different, I know she is. She'll make for a good killer."

"You keep thinking that boy. I'll be going now. Same time next month, don't forget." There was no reply from Benny as it would always end with Hoyt's last words, much less warning. His boss walked away, Benny suddenly feeling less confident in the idea that Lunetta was capable of being a pirate, but he had to try... For some reason he had to try.


	5. 4:Change

**Chapter 4: Change**

The sun was disappearing beyond Rook Islands and as Lunetta gazed lazily out the window, Benny was mumbling to himself in a frustrated tone, mostly directed towards her.

"What the fuck were you thinking Luna?! Hoyt Volker would have killed you without goddamned hesitation, if he even sensed the slightest disrespect." He finally broke from his individual rant, to yell at her.

"I wouldn't have cared. He thought I was a whore. Do you know how that makes me feel?" She huffed. "Everyone thinks I am a whore. Some slut willing to give, but not take. Simply for their pleasure."

"You've got to prove yourself. If you don't then you'll never survive." Lunetta shrugged letting out a heave of air from her lunges yet again. She looked ahead at the dirt path, Benny was driving down.

"What do pirates do?"

"You know exactly what they do. They kill, they sell, they ransom, that sort of thing." He acted as though he had said it a million times.

"It's not hard?"

"It's not easy." His grip tightened on the wheel, he could sense her doubt. She wasn't exactly set on the idea that she would be shooting innocents, but Benny was sure she'd get used to it.

"Where are we going?"

"To Vaas, he decides whether or not you can be a pirate, then you have to go through initiation."

"What's that?"

"You have to kill someone with your bare hands." Lunetta gulped audibly, she had never heard of such brutality aside from...

"So you did that?"

"Yes, but I got a very heavy beat down." Benny hadn't realiuzed his answers were only making her doubt this decision even more.

"I haven't fought in so long Ben, what the fuck am I gonna do?" Benny bit his bottom lip and remained silent for a moment, Lunetta rolled her eyes, he neve rhad the smartest brain in the bunch.

"Well... Um... Vaas will probably make you go against someone else who is looking to be a pirate to. They won't hesitate to fuck you up, so I expect you'd defend yourself, right?"

"Yeah, I would defend myself." Lunetta looked back out the window and for the remainder of the ride, there was not another word exchanged between the two of them. Benny pulled up alongside a dock that hung off the edge of the beach, at the end of it was a small motor boat. In the distance, Lunetta could make out the shape of a compact island, the night sky rung over it like a hammock tied to two trees.

"He's on that island." Lunetta stated confidently as she followed Benny in swift steps down the dock. Their boots in sync, he stopped alongside the motor boat and hopped in it, untying it from the board that held it to the dock. Lunetta hopped in beside him and sat down, he turned on the motor and the boat gradually slid forward leaving the protection of the dock with a low rumbling.

The closer that Benny and Lunetta got to the island, the more nervous she became. She reminded herself the only reason she was doing this, was to get revenge, she knew that her brother's death would not stop affecting her. She had been thinking about him ever since she found his body dead. She blamed herself brutally, the entire ride to the dock she was mentally cursing herself, hearing the words of her mother repeating in her head.

She couldn't fail, she would do what she had to do for her brother. The Rakyat deserved to die and she honestly could not handle losing this battle? War? Disagreement? She really didn't know what it was, only that it pissed her off. The boat pulled up into the island, Benny dragging it the rest of the way to lay nestled in the sand, walking her down a path that led to a concrete compound in the nigh, flashing lights of rainbow colors and booming party music, while several pirate guards scrutinized the area. One of which was standing in a tower, with a high powered sniper rifle in one hand.

There was no doubt, Lunetta was intimidated by them all. She had to hold back her shaking, Benny trailed ahead of her as they grew closer and closer to the bright metal doors that opened into the large compound. Stares directed towards her came with lusty wandering eyes and obscene gestures, she stepped much quicker now with Benny. Having rare contact with pirates, aside from Benny and the rent collectors that stopped by the village she had been scared for her life. She could only wonder how intimidating Vaas would be compared to the men that worked under him.

She had heard gruesome stories about how they handled hostages and tortured random natives. Benny noticed how tense she had gotten the further they stepped into the compound. Buildings kept close to the concrete walls and two stages resided in the center where strippers danced to gain the bundles of money placed at the stage edges.

Ripped up and dirty red couches resided around the camp, where men sat, some with a woman on their lap and a beer in their hand, others cleaning their weapon, while some sat and watched the women on stage. Lunetta had never been exposed to such things in her life, she had never been to Badtown as she so rarely left Amanki unless she was working or hunting. She went hunting in the early mornings and never strayed to far from the village perimeter.

She covered her eyes when topless women passed them and coughed as marijuana smoke entered her lunges. Benny suddenly stop, his eyes focused on a red couch... When Lunetta looked as well, she froze. It was obvious that this was Vaas Montenegro, the Mohawk, the signature smirk that she had heard so much about, the charm, and most importantly the scar.

Her breath caught at the sight of him, bulging muscles, tan skin over pulsing veins, a reasonable amount of chest hair peaking through the neck of his shirt. Two woman in bikinis sat on either side of him, his arms wrapped around them as they nurtured him with adoration and naughty whispers. He seemed very appeased at the moment and Lunetta was suddenly questioning why she even considered joining the Pirates if this was what they did with their time. If she really wanted she could fake the Rakyat out and end this hell of a mess without second thought, but her mind told her to stay, something kept her here.

"That's him, come on." Benny started walking again, stopping when he realized Lunetta was not following. "What is wrong?"

"I can't do this Benny..." She shook her head and stared down at the ground with wide eyes and a shocked expression. "I have never killed before aside from animals, I have never had drugs before, for Christ's sake I haven't even tortured someone." She exclaimed, he crossed his arms and glared at her.

"But you are capable of doing those things. I know you are. I see it in your eyes. Do you want to get your revenge?" He stepped towards her at her silence while she remained blank, still processing all that had occurred. She eventually looked up at him again, with wild brown eyes and a strict expression.

"Yes... I do." Benny grabbed her arm and gently tugged her towards Vaas's direction until they were just close enough and she was able to pause where she stopped.

"Vaas, I am back man." Benny stated, Vaas stood up with a pleasant smirk, shoving the women off him as he did.

"That's fucking great Hermano, how did it go?" He placed a hand on Benny's shoulder and for a moment waited for Benny's reply. He hounded over Benny a whopping four inches, this made Lunetta want to run even more. Height was always a major factor when it came to dominance and leadership, Benny was just about taller than Lunetta, but Vaas seemed to be a lot taller than him.

"It went good. Listen I uh-" Vaas's eyes snapped to the woman alongside Benny, Lunetta. He stared for a long minute, taking in her curves, her features, the ample breasts, and dirty skin. He would be lying if he said she wasn't attractive, she just needed to be cleaned and Vaas being the man he was immediately assumed she was a gift from Benny. He stepped past Benny, who said nothing as Vaas stood in front of her.

She stared him directly in the eyes with no regret, but he could see the pain that roamed within the crystal orbs.

"And who is this?" He asked questionably, grabbing her hand and lifting it to bring her knuckles to his dry lips. She yanked her hand away, stepping back with discomfort as Vaas glared venomously at her. "I like her already, Benny. Thank you."

"I'm not a present."

"Well, if you were, I definitely wouldn't mind unwrapping you." She scowled at him in complete disgust, her eyes still traveling the length of his body, inspecting him.

"She is here for business, Vaas." Vaas spun to look at Benny, pointing his finger at him thoughtfully.

"What business? Hoyt give her to you?"

"No-" Lunetta was on the teetering point between beating the crap out of Vaas or Benny. She certainly was going for the latter, honestly she wasn't a child, she could fend for herself.

"I want to be a pirate." Not even a second passed before she felt Vaas's cold calculating gaze upon her, his boots stomping towards her, he looked down at her as something less than a woman or perhaps less than even a human being.

"You listen well chica, I don't play games unless I initiate them myself. This isn't a game, I make the rules around here. You are a weak ass bitch, what makes you think I would allow you to be a pirate?" Lunetta shrugged.

"Fine, if you don't want me then you won't have me." She turned her back to him, nearly out of his arm's reach before he grabbed her forearm with a tight grip and tugged her into his body.

"I never said I didn't want you, I said you don't have what it takes." He grumbled seductively into her ear.

"I take that as a challenge." She whispered back into his, some odd sensation rolling through her that shoved away the irritation she had for this man. She would not let this man affect her, she lets no man affect her in such a way and no man ever has.

"Try to prove me wrong and your head will end up on a stake."

"I don't care if I die." His eyes narrowed although they were not looking at one another, he certainly could hear the distaste in that sentence. He was personally intrigued, but out of stubbornness, not willing to admit it. He pushed her away from him releasing her arm.

"Why? Give me one reason why I should bother accepting you as one of us."

"I'm not asking you to accept me, I want revenge. The Rakyat killed my brother. If you don't help me then, I will go help myself." Vaas crossed his arms, one hand reaching up to itch the stubble on his chin. He looked off into space with deep thought.

"Why would they kill your brother?" He asked.

"They burned down Amaniki."

"So they weren't directly trying to get to you?" Vaas paced around her, all the while he observed her every move, her expression, how she talked and how she stood, even a little more for his own amusement.

"No... I-I don't know." Her voice cracked under confusion and loss of confidence, she was positive they did it because of her, she didn't follow their principles or guidelines and besides Amanaki was a neutral place. When Vaas looked at her he saw utter weakness, but then he also saw strength, a free spirit and he was willing to make her something he had never had before. Not a slave, nor a whore, but a counterpart. Nothing like Benny, but someone he can build up from the rubble, make her dependent on only him so she followed his every order like a puppy dog looking for a bone.

He grinned to himself at the idea, the idea that she could be his little project for the next few days, weeks, if she could make it.

"Alright then. I accept your admission, but now you must pass initiation." He paused in his steps to where he was directly beside her, side glancing her. "Do you know what that is?"

"Yes." She hoarsely replied, making him even more amused, he uncrossed his arms to pull his pants up slightly while walking over to Benny.

"Go get Ricko."

"But Vaas-"

"Go get him!" Vaas interrupted back, Benny did not keep Vaas waiting and followed his order, Vaas rotated around to find Lunetta again. Yet, again his eyes were traveling the contours of her body, following down the tribal tattoos that revealed on her neck curiously. "Were you Rakyat?"

"A long time ago."

"Why not anymore?"

"My mother died, my father fled, and I was left on my own." He nodded his head.

"I know what that feels like." Vaas's eyes weren't on her anymore, but instead on what was behind her. A man walking alongside Benny in pirate attire, he was covered in blood, an apron hanging from his shoulders, heavily built, and tall. She was shocked overall and couldn't really contain the fear that struck her heart.

"Who is that?"

"The man you have to kill."

"But isn't he already-"

"He is." The man named Ricko and Benny stopped alongside Vaas, Vaas shaking his blood ridden hand and giving him a nod of respect.

"Who is the fighter?" Vaas pointed to Lunetta, she bit her tongue to refrain from letting out a squeak. Ricko chuckled as though Vaas was joking, reaching around his back to untie the apron, he tossed it to the side. "It's to the death then?"

"Yes." Vaas affirmed, a menacing look as he took a step away taking Benny with him by grabbing the back collar of his tank and dragging him back towards the couch where the two girls waited. Ricko cocked his head, approaching forward, Lunetta retreated back. He snorted shaking his head, many of the Pirates that had recognized a fight was about to occur, came tumbling around to form a circle. Within no time they had already attracted an audience, Vaas at the head of them with crossed arms and a bemused expression and a whore under his arm, Benny standing beside him the other had wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

"You gonna be a pussy, or are you gonna fight?" Lunetta delayed in any movement, she was stuck in her thoughts of utter shock and fear, all scenarios of failure came to mind. She had never killed someone, when Benny said she had to, she never thought it would begin so quickly. Ricko once again tried to break Lunetta's bubble, but she stepped away hoping to keep him at a distance and analyze his weak points from afar.

"Come on bitch. I don't have all fucking day! Fight me!" The crowd that had gathered began chanting "Ricko", over and over again. Lunetta's palms sweated, she was too caught up in her own thoughts to realize the fist flying towards her face.

Then she was on the ground, her vision blurred and several voices around her. When she could make out the clear image of Ricko standing above her with a knife, she immediately reacted out of instinct, rolling away from the stab that he had made at he body. She climbed up onto her legs, blinking several times to regain her surroundings.

Looking up at Ricko, she made no mistake as to what had to be done. She made her first swing at him, but a quick punch to the gut ended this. She grabbed the back of his head and plummeted it down into her knee cap, causing a sickening crack to silence the crowd. Ricko was swift and grabbed her by the tank top, shoving her forward, she stumbled back onto the ground.

His nose had grown a vibrant purple, blood flowing from it profusely, he spat one of his front teeth out onto the ground with a glob of pink spit. Lunetta stood up again and resumed a fighting stance, but could not stop him from grabbing her short hairs knife still in his hand, he jabbed it up into her side. Lunetta let out a grunt of displeasure, pain shooting through her every nerve and every synapse in her brain.

She thought she was finished, falling to her knees with the knife still lodged into her stomach. She sat back onto her feet and reminisced in the shuttering horrors she was undergoing. She watched as Ricko walked away, leaving the job to be done slowly as blood came and came from the wound, dripping from the knife still buried in her bowels.

Instead of dying as she felt she should have, she escaped that darkness and took a deep breath. The Pirates were going crazy as Ricko praised them, back faced to her. She grabbed the handle of the knife and slid it out making a loud hiss, she ignored all the blood that spilled from her body and got onto her feet. Running towards him in a red rage, she dug the knife directly into the back of his skull, stabbing repeatedly until his body fell from under her and dropped to the ground.

Hands covered in blood, she felt a cold weave itself around her, she looked down at the blood she was covered in. A mixture between hers and the gruesome mess before her. Her eyes fluttered as she looked around at blank, surprised faces. One last shutter and she fell directly down onto the ground, breathing going ragged, and heart beating faster, she lost her train of thought to the heady needs of exhaustion and blood loss.


	6. 5:A Pirate's Life

**Chapter 5: A Pirate's Life**

"Fuck you Vaas, I can't let you do that to her." Lunetta heard the distinct voice of Benny in her hazy state.

"I'm the fucking boss around here. You're lucky I like you, or else you would be dead. Plus, why the fuck do you care about her anyways?"

"I understand her, there is a difference."

"No... You love her." She could hear the smug words leave Vaas's mouth, annoying her to no end. She attempted to open her eyes, but they were held down by a heavy weight and soreness along with the rest of her body. Vaas made a chortle of excitement. "You fucking love this girl." He derided to Benny.

"I... Listen Vaas, don't hurt her. She's been through too much shit."

"I will only make her stronger. Let's just say we are at an understanding, no? There's a difference." He recited Benny's words, a threatening pat on the shoulder, that echoed through the room. Lunetta made a groan, rolling onto her back and shaking her head from side to side, one by one her frail limbs returned to her. "Right on time, No Hermano? When she's up, tell her to change." Lunetta could audibly hear that Vaas had left the room, his boots trailing dirt, the door slammed behind him.

Lunetta forced her eyes open, finding that the body alongside her was Benny. She went to sit up, but he placed a restraining hand on her shoulder to keep her down. His glasses were off, underneath his sprawling brown eyes, that sunk into her soul. The room was dim, keeping her from getting a good view of his facial features, but she would assume he wasn't happy.

"You're hurt."

"I know." She croaked out, it suddenly hurting to speak and to even move.

"You did it though. I'm happy for you." She raised her hand as best as she could to hold his hand, his fingers weaved through hers.

"Stay where you are."

"Didn't Vaas want me to go though?" Benny shook his head, his chin meeting his chest.

"He wants to give you an introduction to the way things are. You'll go through training for the next week and if he thinks you are ready, he'll station you somewhere."

"You don't think I am ready?"

"You are weak right now. Vaas is crazy to-" She interrupted him, making a loud grunt, she sat up. He stood up, having a silent moment of panic. The stitches still at the lower left side of her stomach, a long slice along the hip bone. She was in her sports bra and underwear, she didn't care however, taking a moment to adjust to the annoying pain in her side. "Luna, you are gonna break the stitches."

"I have to do this."

"Don't be ridiculous, you have plenty of time to prepare yourself. You can't just go out there and expect to work as good as anyone else in your condition." She stood up with a loud hiss, her legs crumbled and she fell into Benny's chest. He held her firmly to his body, holding her body up from the fall.

"I can take care of myself, Ben." She whispered to him, placing a reassuring hand on his cheek. She lifted herself up into her feet, looking around the room, with her arms still strong around his neck.

"Where are my clothes?" With his head hung low he gestured to a pair of clothes on the dresser beside the bed.

"They weren't my choice, I don't think you'll like them."

"What other choice do I have?"

"None really. Um..." He shyly itched the back of his head, watching her as she strode casually over to the pile of clothes, practicing at hiding the weakness her wound entailed. She stopped alongside the dresser, pausing for a moment as her hand glided along the thin red fabric. She knew what Benny was going to say and honestly she didn't know how to reply.

She loved no one aside from her brother, everyone else was an acquaintance or nothing, to her Benny and her had an understanding of one another, that's as far as their relationship went. She would never consider him a friend, much less anything beyond that. All traces of emotion left her the moment she had left her brother's dead body in her childhood home. In this case she was starting a new life, but she was only here to get revenge, not here for boys or drugs or fun for that matter. She clenched the shirt in her hand, rubbing her thumbs over it thoughtfully.

"I wonderingly, since you are a pirate now and all that maybe-"

"I'm not going to be a pirate for long. Only until we destroy the Rakyat and I can take my revenge." She made a pained noise, her stitches stretching when she thee the vibrant red tank top over her head.

"Right." He half heartedly agreed. The tank top was half her size, falling down her mid thighs like a dress would. The next article was a pair of black button up shorts, which barely would have been as long as the tank top. She put them on none the less, taking advantage of the fact that Vaas decided to let her wear clothes at all after what she did.

In that moment, she realizes she lost all logical reasoning, she had murdered a man brutally. However, she took into consideration that she had made the right decision, rather than dying she survived and did what she had to do. Not exactly the best plan, but it did have the best outcome. She looked down at her hands partially still covered with traces of blood.

"Who cleaned me up?"

"I did. I stitched up your wound to." She glanced over her shoulder at him with limiting eyes then looked back.

"Thank you." When she had finished dressing, she turned to face Benny who was still standing there, contemplating whether or not to keep her from leaving. "You know i'll be fine. Where are my boots?"

"Beside the bed." He replied in a dull voice, she sat down on the edge grabbing her boots and slowly putting them on. "It's not that I don't think you can do this, it's that I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm hurt as it is and have nothing to lose." She stood up making her way towards the door, Benny snatched her wrist she sent a glare in his direction. "If you walk out that door, you'll be all on your own."

"I'm always on my own." She detached herself from his grip and left out the door, it slammed behind her causing Benny to flinch. He felt no pain and he no longer understood the woman he cared for deeply... She had become a blank slate and there was no stopping what was to come of that.

When Lunetta exited the shanty, she was met by a certain pirate lord sitting on the edge of the patio. A cigarette hung loosely from between his lips and his eyes directed towards the rest of the compound, which appeared to be the same way it was the previous day, despite the fact that the women had no partners and the men were either busy at work or slumped around.

Vaas made no move to direct his attention towards Lunetta, she stepped down the steps and sat down beside him. They hadn't really been properly introduced, meaning he most likely didn't catch her name.

"I'm Luna." He slowly angled his head to look at her, lips releasing the cloud of smoke from his lunges.

"Like the moon?"

"Like the moon." She recited, in the light she was able to get a much better look a the gruff stubble around his thin lips. He had hazel eyes, the scar that lined from his left brow up was beautiful, Lunetta couldn't really understand why it was so entrancing to her. No doubt he was an attractive man, but she wasn't going to let herself think that, she thought back to her brother... She needed to get revenge.

Vaas and Lunetta did not break one another's gaze, which was shortly interrupted by Benny who exited the hut. He stepped down the steps in between them, facing them when his boots hit the dirt.

"So what now?"

"You are going to PC, while I give a tour to Luna here." He winked at her as if it would have an affect on her, the jealousy written on Benny's face after that was utterly evident.

"I'm the only one who calls her Luna." He scowled, Vaas chuckled.

"Someone is jealous."

"You know what? I have work to do anyways, I should be back in a couple hours." Benny then stomped off, Lunetta watching restlessly as he did. Vaas stuck his teeth between his teeth.

"Like anyone fucking cares when you get back..." Vaas muttered before glancing over his shoulder at Lunetta. "You know he wants to fuck you, right?"

"I know. Thing is I don't want to fuck him, nor anyone."

"Good, because that is our first rule." Vaas stood up, flicking his cigarette to the side. He placed his hands on his hips, eyes narrowed he looked across the compound nodding his head in approval of some sort.

"Don't fuck my men." He added, she rolled her eyes as his eyes found hers traveling the length of her slim legs up until they met her eyes.

"What's the second rule?"

"You only follow under me directly. If one of my men tell you do something, don't do it. I order you around, not them." She stood up, crossing her arms and giving attitude.

"I am only here because I want revenge."

"Ha, very funny. Chica, we don't interact with the Rakyat very often. Other than on the days they aren't smart enough to recognize they are weak and will never win."

"Why not? I thought you were at a war against them."

"We are." He shrugged, itching his chin. "The issue is we also have other work that is done. So we try not to get too involved with them." He started walking away, expecting her to follow, which with a hiss, she quickly did.

"You were Rakyat though. I thought maybe you of all people-"

"Another rule, we don't talk about our pasts... Or one another's, we started a new life being pirates and that's how it works." She stopped in her steps, suddenly realizing she might have made a grave mistake.

"My brother was murdered by those fucks. I want them dead... Every last one of them."

"You can't always get what you want." He affirmed, she snarled stepping forward and pushing him. He made no move against her, standing straight up, his chest out and eyes focused directly on her. He was trying to assert dominance and authority, trying to intimidate her as said before his height was a major factor in that. To his disbelief she didn't flinch, she didn't even cower, he then knew it would take much longer than a day to show her who the true boss is.

"I will see what I can do, but for now you are going to show me what you got." He continued walking, she cautiously followed after him. Not one pirate bothered looking in her direction, they all knew that their boss would get upset otherwise. "Can you fight?"

"Yes. I'm sure you know that already."

"Can you shoot a gun?"

"I am good with bow."

"I never asked you that." He grumbled back, they continued walking until they exited the compound. Vaas stopping in front of it and taking a deep inhale of the fresh seawater air.

"Since last night you killed my best man you are going to take his place. He was torturing a couple people while I was... Occupied, but now that I am not. We can finish his job." There was two things that bothered her about this, she had never tortured someone before. The thought of prolonging someone's suffering was something she didn't have in her blood. Second, the fact that it didn't affect Vaas that she had killed one of his best men, it made her think about how separate he was from these pirates. They had children and wives while he had a very murderous sister, not that he wasn't murderous himself. It was the fact that he didn't care, he respected, but honestly all of them could drop dead and he would continue business as usual. She took note of this in her mind, being sure to analyze his every movement and word to determine when he would betray her because eventually he would have no use for her and she knew that.

He guided her around a corner of the concrete walls that were the compound, she nearly dropped dead at the gruesome sight before her. A dead limp man with his limbs hung from the tree, his body several inches above the ground. He was American, brown tresses and a Hawaiian shirt with khakis.

"This is Mark. Say Hello Mark." Mark's eyes cracked open, his face bright red, he groaned out what must had been blood which dripped from the corner of his lips as if it was endless.

"What do you gain from this?" Lunetta asked out of random, feeling displaced in the presence of a man who deserved mercy. His suffering needed to end and Lunetta was more than willing to end it. No, she didn't like killing, but it was the reason that justified it.

"Just for fun. Pass time, sometimes a little more." Vaas walked over to a table with an assortment of knives and odd tools spread out across it. His fingers grazed over each individual one teasingly, before lifting up a hefty blade. He turned to face her, leaning back into the table. "He's lost his spark, doesn't scream anymore, we've fucked with him so much... Look at his hands." Vaas gestured to Mike and when Lunetta looking at his hanging hands she nearly threw up. Each finger was ripped off, with a little bone showing through the skin, large quantities of blood dropped down his torn fingers to his wrists where it had dried against his fair skin.

"Jesus Christ, Vaas, just put him out of his misery." Lunetta exclaimed, her fists clenched with aggravation. He shook his head, staring tentatively at the blade and grazing his finger across the sharp edge.

"That's not how pirates work, you see, we show no mercy."

"How long has he been here?"

"Six days, I give him water, but..." Vaas snorted staring off into the distance thoughtfully. "I am sure he hasn't eaten for twelve."

"Just kill him." He flipped the knife so his hand gripped the blade, he offered the knife to her.

"I feel a sudden disinterest in killing him myself, you take care of it." She didn't hesitate, despite the fact he was merely checking her obedience, he was pleased to see her grab the knife and lift it up nonchalantly to the neck of the hanging man. "You aren't taking into consideration all that this man has to live for." When he saw that distant look in her eyes, he stood up and walked around her to stand alongside her, he leaned forward so his lips grazed her ear. "This man has a family, he has a life outside of this island. I am sure it would be selfish of him to just die." She felt the knife grow heavier in her hand as it dropped at the realization of his words. He was right... She didn't want to admit it, but he was.

"Why do you do this?"

"I like making people stronger."

"You aren't going to let him go though." She simply stated because she knew from what she had witnessed, that he wasn't that type of man.

"No. If I did he would tell someone... That's not the point of this however."

"Then what is?"

"Hope. It's beautiful seeing how it can evolve from a sliver into a whole. I like watching them lose hope Luna, then, only then will they know how shitty life can be." Her eyebrows furrowed and she gulped audibly, it was scary how true his words were. "Strength doesn't come from thin air, baby. It comes from fire, it's comes from evolution. When you learn that then you will have my utter respect." He paused examining her features to be sure there was no confusion. He wanted her to change herself, to adapt and evolve, other wise she would be like this man. She would have hope and she would hang on the teetering edge of life and death. "Okay?" He asked again, to be sure this time, she got the memo, that things weren't going to be served on a silver platter. What he didn't know was that she already knew this? She had gone through so much on her own and that's what made her an individual apart from the others. She nodded her head, not expecting him to pull his gun out and randomly shoot the man in the head.

Blood spattered over Lunetta and brains along with skull fragments flew onto the dirt ground. Her eyes bulged from her head as she stared at his mangled cranium like mashed bananas falling from a bowl of cereal.

"What the fuck!" She uttered, Vaas chuckled shaking his head he holstered his weapon and turned on his way.

"Come on Chica. There is more to see."


	7. 6:Bedtime Stories

**Chapter 6:Bedtime Stories**

Vaas brought Lunetta back through the compound, except this time walked her into the open warehouse that was across from the metal doors entering the compound. Inside were stacks and stacks of cocaine and marijuana, she had never seen so much drugs in her entire life. She honestly didn't understand what the importance of drugs were, while being a pirate she figured Vaas would tell her.

The warehouse had a high ceiling, the walls constructed of thin wavy metal, a table sat in the center as the drugs surrounded the perimeter wall.

"This is our little stash." Vaas held his hands up in praise, spinning around the warehouse as they both stepped in further, their steps echoing through the warehouse as they walked across the concrete floor.

"Little?"

"It's all that we need. If you want some you have to come to me first, it's my job to make sure that this shit doesn't go to waste." He strictly looked at her as though she would be that one pirate to take all the drugs without permission, but in truth she had never had drugs before. She had barely even seen drugs aside from Marijuana which was something used a lot in Amaniki.

"I don't do drugs anyways." He chuckled shaking his head.

"That's what they all say." She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, a signature gesture of hers that he was beginning to pick up on. He turned back over to the table, laid out on top was a full map of the island, with fresh red sharpie points marking direct outposts around the island, the sharpie lazily put off to the side.

"This is a map of the island." He stated the obvious to purposely annoy her, she still walked over to his side none the less. She looked down at the map, her eyes scanning the various points and dotted lines that followed each printed path.

"What does this all mean?"

"They are the movements of my men around the island."

"It's a pattern then?"

"Exactly and it's never the same each week, this way the Rakyat don't catch on."

She sighed and nodded, afterwards he told her about the possible outposts he would station her at, particularly where Ricko would be, then he told her about was expected of her while she worked at those outposts. When he finished he led her back out into the center of the compound.

Honestly, she wasn't expecting him to be as courteous as he was. She was expecting shouting, yelling, crude names, but really he could be very gentle when he wanted to be. This drew her attention, but not for long.

"So any more questions?" Lunetta had plenty of questions that needed to be answered, especially considering she was the only women around the compound.

"How do I take care of myself when I am around a whole bunch of men?" Vaas shrugged, a disinterested look on his face, that wasn't the question he was expecting from her.

"You adapt, that's how it works baby. Anything else?" She crossed her arms, eyebrows furrowing.

"You can't just tell me to fucking adapt, while i'm on this two day break that all your men are allowed, where do I stay?"

"Why don't you just-" He paused when he had remembered that her home was burned down. He sighed, quietly thinking to himself, really the overall care of her didn't matter to him, but she did make a valid point. "Make yourself a place to stay, I don't know. As long as it doesn't have anything to do with pissing me off, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever. Now what do I do?"

"Well usually, I would put you through training, but I am too fucking lazy for that right now. You can do whatever the fuck you want now, enjoy it while you can because I am waking you up early tomorrow." He walked off leaving the conversation hanging as it was, Lunetta let out a sigh. She looked around the camp, hoping to find Benny somewhere, but instead found nothing.

She really did have nothing to do and no one to talk to. She eventually took to sitting at one of the red couches, looking around curiously and scoping out the men scattered throughout the compound. Vaas had wandered of towards the warehouse that remained shut, a large white eye painted onto it's door. She suspected that was where he spent most of his time unless he had something to do.

Not long into her thoughts was she interrupted by a nimble hand to the shoulder. She jumped up from the couch in a fighting stance, feeling the everlasting pain that shot from her wound she winced, but quickly contained herself. She glanced at the owner of the hand, a whore by the looks of her. A lean, thin body, half naked in only a blue and white striped bikini. Her black hair was straight ending at her chest bone, coming over either shoulder to spill down her breasts. Her eyes were brown and features more on the Vietmenese side of the island's people.

"I am sorry." She spoke, raising a hand and waving in a friendly manner. She showed a glimpse of a shy smile before circling around the couch and sitting where Lunetta once sat. "I didn't mean to scare you, I am Raven." Lunetta sorted her as a non-threat and took the seat beside her, feeling uncomfortable within the close proximity of someone who traded their body for money and ridicule.

"Luna." She replied, Raven nodded her head, sitting up straight. Lunetta could see the bruises that came over her back, hickies on her neck, once beautiful skin charred and deterred by the mistreatment of the male counterpart. Raven could feel her staring and had grown accustomed to it. "Why?" Was all Luna said in a barely audible monotone.

"We have no choice. We do this for our families, some for drugs, some in-debt to Vaas."

"Why are you here?" Lunetta asked curiously, never having heard the side of the abused, she listened.

"My brother was killed by Citra's men, he worked for Hoyt owing the man a great deal. In turn I took his place to prevent Hoyt from murdering my father." Lunetta brought her legs up to her chest on the couch, closing her eyes and feeling all the burning emotions rise within her. Raven would do anything for her family while Lunetta had lost that value through ignorance and weakness. Her brother's death was all her fault, she had no one to cry for, no one to sacrifice herself for other than an abstract entity... Other than the idea that her brother needed to be avenged.

"How did you get here? Word has gone around you are a pirate now." Lunetta opened her eyes and stared down into the dirt with half-lidded exhausted eyes.

"I am."

"How did you do it?" Raven practically laughed with her exclamation. "The first female pirate, already so many have given you a name and word of you has gotten to the Main land."

"What do you mean? What's my name?"

"La Luna de sangre. I am not really Hispanic, but that must be something good." Lunetta crossed her arms more and scowled with disgust in her and those around her. "Right?"

"It means Blood moon." Lunetta half-heartedly answered back, she didn't know how such a name could travel like wild fire. The pain in her abdominal slowly fading, she waved a hand to Raven, who took that as a sign to leave and she did. Lunetta was lost in a rage filled mindset, she wanted nothing more then to get revenge.

She bit her bottom lip until it bled, not feeling the pain even after she slurped the red liquid from her skin. She felt the abyss of darkness and anger consume her and memories took over.

 _It was a stormy night, branches flew to and fro in this direction and that, hitting up against the window that belonged to the Rodrigo shanty. The small beautiful girl had nestled herself deep into the thick red covers that were her bed. Her mother sitting on the edge of the wood staring down at her daughter with a look of admiration._

 _Her father was in the living room watching TV, while the storm continued to rage on and frequently ruin the signal followed by his mumbling in Spanish tongue. Lunetta smiled up at her mother, Barsul soft asleep in his crib, snoozing softly to the pittering and pattering of rain on the roof._

 _"Mama, can you tell me a bedtime story?"_

 _"Sure, my love I suppose it wouldn't hurt." Lunetta scooted over as her mother sunk into the bedding beside her. Long black hair framing the gorgeous features of her face, her white button up dress catching at the sheets. Lunetta rested her head onto her mother's bosom, while her mother thought of a story to tell. There were many that Lunetta had heard of and she had the ears for stories that attracted sadness and sorrow._

 _"Alright, I will tell you the story of La Lorona..."_

 _"La Lorona?" Lunetta asked questionably, her young self skeptical about the title._

 _"Yes, my moon. La Lorona." Lunetta closed her eyes and waited for her mother's sweet voice to continue the story._

 _"There once was a beautiful young woman, who loved all that she was and all that she could be. Every man wanted her, but she insisted that she only take one man... A man emanating handsomeness, strength, and wealth." Her mother paused to add that dramatic affect. "When she had found the strongest and most handsome man in the world. She had sought to marry him and she did. Years passed where happiness was between them both, but with years came age and the woman grew old and less attractive to the eye of her lover."_

 _"With their one child, her husband would leave for months upon months only to return without even a single glance in the direction of his wife. She grew envious of her child, always that they had proclaimed the attention of her lover, more than she."_

 _"One day while strolling through the park with her child, she met her husband sitting alongside a beautiful and young woman. Her child greeted him with happiness and he reciprocated, but his wife was not the center of his attention any longer. In her rage and jealousy she eventually grabbed her child and threw him in the river." Lunetta made a gasp of surprise. "As she recognized her mistake, her child drowned and died in the water that flowed down the river. The next day they found the woman on the edge of the bank dead. The night of her burial it is said that her voice was heard moaning, 'where are is my child?' Over and over again... She never found them." Her mother waited for Lunetta to make her response, Lunetta sighed._

 _"Mama, does daddy love you?"_

 _"Of course he does. He always will."_

 _"Does he love me?" Her mother tensed under that, Lunetta and her father never truly had a strong connection. They were different in so many ways and this made her question his love for her. "Your father loves you, but he's just too blind to see it. One day when he does... Then, that will be the day that you will no longer have me." Lunetta gripped onto her mother fully, not understanding completely the meaning behind her mother's words._

 _"Don't go mama."_

 _"I won't... I am not going anywhere." She reassured, Lunetta falling asleep into her arms_.


	8. 7:The Lure

**Chapter 7: The Lure**

Lunetta had found a place outside of the compound on the beach where she could watch the sunset and attempt to fall asleep. She couldn't fall asleep, sour memories and unwanted guilt kept her eyes from falling shut. She stayed up all night, when the moon fell she rose and went back to the compound, dragging her sore limbs and sleep deprived self across the salted sand.

When she arrived in the compound it was still early morning, the sky a dark blue, before the sun swung up to lay greeting. Men were already walking back and forth, getting work done, the whores were nowhere to be seen. She found Vaas speaking with another pirate face to face, he held a strict expression as they spoke to one another. Soon Lunetta realized this man was Benny and approached without second thought, both acted as though she wasn't there and continued talking to one another.

"... I understand Vaas, but there has been a change of plans. Bad Town is in shitty condition and Hoyt is threatening to get Buck involved."

"That sick fucker? Hell no! He can go fuck himself." Vaas's temper increased, he placed his hands on his hips and paced back and forth like a tiger in a cage. Benny looked over at Lunetta who was listening intently.

"Maybe, she can go." Vaas stopped and glared in Benny's direction.

"She hasn't gone through training yet, you fucking Idiot. Buck will tear her apart."

"We'll tell her what to do."

"What exactly is going on here?" Lunetta chimed in, her voice dragged out with emphasis by the lack of sleep, Vaas pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

"There have been sightings of Americans on the island, three to be exact that arrived in Bad Town and Hoyt wants it taken care of. The problem is, Bad Town is Rakyat territory."

"So why won't we go? We are better than them-"

"It's not that easy Luna. If they find that we are there, shit will hit the roof and right now we have other things to worry about."

"So I will go." She agreed, both men pausing to process what she just said, Vaas was hesitant while Benny had his mind set on the idea of her going. It was as if their roles had completely changed.

"You don't know what you are doing, worst scenario you get yourself raped." Vaas retorted, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at her.

"I can take care of myself you know." Lunetta didn't exactly know what she was getting into, she had never heard of a man named Buck and she had never been to Bad Town. She also didn't understand how him of all people would bother to care whether she was raped or not. She wanted to go because she was interested, she wanted to go because she was bored. "Why does it matter to you anyways?"

"Because if you are as good as everyone thinks you are, you can be an asset."

"What do people think about me?" Benny made an awkward whistle and looked away. He was the culprit, the whole reason everyone talked about her was because of him. "Ben, what did you fucking do?" She ground out between gritted teeth, fists clenched. This wasn't how she pictured things to go, she assumed that the Rakyat would have been defeated by now if she had never joined the Pirates, she was already considering leaving. Benny looked back at her as bravely as he could.

"I told people about you. About what you can do. About what you use to do a long time ago."

"That was forever ago! That's why everyone is giving me a fucking pet name." Before Benny could react she stomped over to him and slapped him in the face.

"Wow Chica, calm your shit." Vaas intervened, feeling bemused by the entire situation. He rose his hands up and smirked in her direction, she huffed angrily about to punch him across the jaw. "What exactly did you do so many years ago?"

"Cage fighting." Benny replied despite having a red hand print on that one side of his face.

"Shut up!" She nearly punched him this time, but he dodged and ducked away behind Vaas. She stopped to stand in front of Vaas, hoping he would step aside so she could give Benny the beat down of his life.

"Cage fighting huh? You win most of your fights?" Benny looked cautiously over Vaas's shoulder, using the pirate lord as a defense.

"She'd win all of them." Benny finished, Lunetta averted her eyes out of embarrassment, cage fighting was that time period in her life when she had no money to provide for Barsul and herself. She didn't know anything about fighting until she entered the cage, which mostly took place not far from Amaniki, if any farther she never would have gone. She learned quickly and most of the men who fought against her were twice her size and much older.

That is how Benny and her came to meet one another, she worked at the shop during the day and cage fought in the night.

"I'll let you go to Bad Town as a test. To see how you handle relations with non-natives. That way if you are usable, that's what you will be doing."

"What do you mean?" Benny came out from his hiding place behind Vaas, she was still infuriated, but otherwise a bit preoccupied with the fact she was going to Bad Town.

"Your job is to find the Americans and lure them back to an outpost, Camp murder preferably because that's where I will be for the remainder of the day."

"Do I worry about Buck?"

"No... Don't fucking worry about him." Vaas mumbled under his breath with revulsion on his every word.

"Okay, so how am I getting there?" Lunetta felt a bit more calm, mostly because she wasn't going to be anywhere near this place for the next couple of hours. Also, because Vaas was trusting with something that must have been very important. Vaas didn't reply quickly, instead he was examining Lunetta from head to toe and back again, something was obviously on his mind again.

"What?"

"Take off the tank top." He ordered nonchalantly, she froze, shaking her head stubbornly, taken aback by his sudden demand.

"Just do it Lunetta. This way the natives won't think you are a pirate." Lunetta rolled her eyes for the hundredth time, Vaas giggled at the gesture he had grown to admire in her. She removed the tank top and handed it forcefully to Vaas, shoving it against his chest and crossing her arms.

"What about the fact that everyone knows my name now?"

"They don't know what you look like. There is a difference. If you be your native self, things will work out." Vaas added, she was beginning to think his sudden change in choice was merely an idea that he would prove her wrong. That she wasn't capable of being the so called, "lure". "Benny will give you the details. I still have work to do here, so when I finish. I'll head over to Camp Murder and wait for you." He really should have added on "to fail", just because that's exactly what he wanted. She knew what he was doing, he was purposely giving her an ego, only so he could break it entirely. Vaas nodded, then turned to go off and do his business, which most likely had to do with cocaine.

Benny said nothing and just stared at her, she sighed knowing today was going to be a rough one.

* * *

Through dramatic curves and bumpy sand paths, Benny drove in Lunetta's car at full speed. The entire time she said nothing, simply because if she opened we mouth mean thing would come out. She instead lazed her head against the window, the Sun's rays peaked through the trees. The overall landscape gliding by as though time had sped forward by milliseconds.

"How did you sleep?" Lunetta groaned at Benny's question, her eyelids drifted open and she bit her tongue to refrain from replying verbally. "Not good then..." He quietly answered to himself. "How's the stitches?" Lunetta rose a hand with a thumb up at him and he nodded his head with approval. The wound was no longer covered up aside from the bandages that resided on her lower abdomen. Certainly that would raise some questions, but not as many as if she were wearing a red shirt. Now all she wore was her black sports bra and the shorts, Benny made her remove the boots considering it would bode well with native style.

"So Camp Murder is directly down the path from Bad Town, if you keep walking you'll make it there eventually." Benny informed, feeling rather confident with himself for a moment, he added, "And also... If you need anything, I am willing to help." Although Lunetta didn't exactly want his help, she took this moment to ask for items of importance.

"I am gonna need a gun. Not now, but... I am a pirate so... Also perhaps some feminine products would do." Benny smiled at her despite the dull voice in which she said everything and nodded his head.

"Anything you want I'll get it for you. I'm here if you need me." It made her want to vomit, he was becoming so lovey dovey simply because he had feelings for her she didn't reciprocate. She looked back out the window, leaning her cheek into it this time. When Benny finally pulled up along a fenced in development, she knew it was Bad Town without a doubt. Benny turned off the car and waited silently.

"Go in there and convince them somehow into getting to Camp Murder. Take this." Brent sat up slightly to uncomfortably reach into his left pocket, removing a small track phone. He handed it to her and she shoved it into one of her pockets. "Give us a call if anything comes up. When you arrive in Camp Murder with the goods, we'll be waiting, so be smart about it."

"How do I get the Americans' attention?"

"Act." Was all that Benny said and she gulped, feeling the nervous jitters one would feel on the first day. She exited the vehicle, as soon as the door was close the car zoomed of and Lunetta was left to fend for herself.


	9. 8:The Realization

**Chapter 8: The Realization**

When Lunetta first stepped into Bad Town, she was met with inhuman conditions, rats scurried around beneath the elevated shanties, ungodly scents surrounded the area, the dirt creased in between her tiny toes, it felt like bugs beneath her feet. She was met with the sight of deranged natives, some leaning leisurely against dirty cardboard buildings and others sitting on the ground in the muck of the unsanitary earth.

Voices sounded from everywhere, shouting this way and that coming from shanties as she passed. Stepping over the prickly splinters of wood that bridged over the trenches of water that flowed from the river alongside the Town. She received stares as she curiously stepped further into hell, passing a market and a whore house, where rotten fish carcasses and disease ridden women were sold alike.

She felt that unexplained feeling that someone gets when being watched and stopped in her tracks looking around with narrowed eyes, when she saw only the usual pairs on her, she continued walking, much more cautiously this time. At the end of Bad Town was a bar, she assumed that this was where she would find the Americans and quickly made her ways towards it.

She ignored the eyes of men that inhabited the River Town, hoping that none of them were stupid to assume she was a whore. She entered the Bar which surprisingly held more stink that the outside air, walking further in having to step over a drunkard man on the ground she entered into the larger portion of the saloon.

She made note of the few that took stay at the scattered round wooden tables, the dim red lighting giving a calming mood to the overall layout of the bar and the bald bar tender in his button up blue shirt, who stood at the counter pointlessly rubbing his cloth along the rusty counter top. Signs and images littered the aluminum walls, thin enough to still hear the conversations that had arisen outside.

Making a further inspection of the area, she found a man in the corner of the bar, alone. His cowboy boots propped up on the table, chest of tattoos revealed past the unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt he wore. His beard thick and hair slicked back, long jeans rolling down his bulky legs. She personally warned herself away from this man. Another section of the bar caught her eye where she caught sight of another man, completely dressed in a white suit. This man drawled her curiosity as he was American, brown hair ending at the shoulders and expensive glasses hanging from his nose. His refined features proved that he had been taken care of well and she immediately sought him as the man to go to.

She thought up how she was to act around this man, he did not look easy to fool, despite looks being deceiving. She approached him taking a seat beside him, he shot his gaze to her before looking back, holding the beer in his hand, he brought it up to his lips and drunk from the glass bottle.

"I'm not who you are looking for?"

"And how do you know who I am looking for?" He took another sip of his beer, making a quenched sound, he placed it down with an audible thud. She leaned on an elbow and fluttered her eyes at him, hoping that would be an alright move to persuade.

"La Luna de Sangre, in English meaning Blood moon. Birth name, Lunetta Rodrigo, age nineteen, follows under the Pirates, just recently having lost Barsul Rodrigo, sibling male, age nine... Must I continue?" Lunetta was shocked, her jaw dropped at all the information he had on her. How could he know such things, particularly about her? She wasn't sure whether to be pissed or mad, believe that with Lunetta there was difference. Lunetta shook her head, she was not expecting this at all.

"Who are you?"

"That is classified information. All you need to know is that the trio you are looking for..." He pointed to the man alone in the corner. "Were captured by Buck, might wanna hurry, he kills them off quickly from what I know." Lunetta looked over at the man, he sat up pulling a wad of hundreds from his pocket, he placed it on the counter and left.

Lunetta's eyes traced back to Buck, she completely forgot about the man in white and instead all her attention was set on the lone Buck sitting directly across from her. She contemplated whether, or not she should handle this herself or call Benny and tell him the news. She couldn't do that though, that would be weakness, she had a mission. She didn't need help to get those Americans, she just needed herself and the power of persuasion.

She sat there for a few minutes in deep thought thinking out every scenario, every consequence to each failure and every praise to the possibility of success. In her thoughts she did not realize that Buck had stood up and left. When she glanced back to his table, she nearly panicked in recognition of his absence.

Standing up she made a logical deduction that he simply was off and on his way. She rushed out the door, exiting towards the sloppy looks and rude eyes of those that camped out front. She scavenged around, eventually following down the path of the village.

For some reason everything seemed light at that moment, her mind became mush and she had forgotten why she was here, what she was doing... She stopped in her footsteps and spun around to look at the various settings around her. She could hear their voices echo in her ears and dizziness consume her.

"What the..." Before she could finish her words, her eyes shut out of her control and she stumbled to the ground with a thud.

* * *

There in that moment in everyone's life where they come to a realization, they have a vision, or a feeling, or an epiphany that brings them to their purpose in life. Lunetta had not found hers, when her brother died, she had thought she had no more purpose... But for some basis when her world came crashing down, it came crashing down for a reason and everything seemed to collide together into one meaning.

Delicate in thought, she felt that rush straight to both her soul and consciousness. She felt the enlightenment that she hadn't sought for that came to her so easily in the darkness of her life. She sat up awake in a puddled mess of sweat and dirt, looking around she found that she was no longer in Badtown. Instead she was in a bamboo cage, several of them were outside the compound, which was exactly her location.

She stood up, brushing herself off, her breath grew heavy and her eyes widened as she thought over recent events. She lifted the bottom of her tank top, which she thought she had given to Vaas, only to realize that there was no sewed wound at her abdomen. She felt and smelt her dry blood which resided just beneath her nose. The sun beamed its rays directly on her sending her into a frenzy of irritation, confusion, frustration, and sorrow. She felt every emotion that she worked so avidly to hide and they were building at the pit of her sanity, if any remained at the moment.

She paced back and forth, taking note that she was not alone. Only three others were in the cage beside her, hands bound by rope to the brittle and moldy bamboo. She paused in her revere to stare, to inspect, they were American... She connected them, the three Americans, to the ones referenced in her dream... If it was even a dream. She didn't know what to call it, she honestly couldn't even determine what was going on, what had happened, and how she got here.

The three Americans were young, around the same age as her, or maybe older. Two boys and a girl, all of them appeared to be thick-headed and obviously babied by their rich families. The first man carried pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. He was the stereotype of a typical American rich kid from Bellaire with short curly locks and plump lips. However the image was screwed by a bloodied nose and bruised face. The girl alongside him couldn't have been no more the same age than him. She had long flowing blonde hair and pink cheeks, her skin with a tanned base. The second man across from them, had a grey hoodie on and skinny jeans, his shoes were missing aside from his socks, and his spiky brown hair was ruffled slightly. He bore the features of a male model, broken with bruises and inflicted cuts.

She went back to pacing, feeling that she could think much more reasonably when doing so. She came up with a list of things to do in her head, making sure that each task be done properly, which was major in solving what her dreamy apparition had meant: 1)Escape this mess. 2)Speak with Benny. 3)Get to Badtown. 4)Find out who the man in white was. 5)Find Buck.

By the end of her list, her process was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching in the doubles. When she lifted her head, she could make out that the two were Benny and Vaas. They were walking down that path which led back into the compound, it branched not far from the cages, in which were nearer to the beach.

Vaas stopped beside the cage, his hands on his hips and his eyes scanning Lunetta's for any signs of fear, but instead he saw none of that.

"You've been out for four days. I told Benny that if you weren't up today, we were gonna feed you to the Sharks." Benny shook his head to rebut the idea non-verbally. He stepped up to the cage, placing a hand by the bar and showing a sympathetic expression.

"How are you? Are you hungry? Thirsty maybe?" Vaas tutted Benny with a small smirk, shaking his head.

"No, special treatment for this woman. She couldn't even take a punch. She couldn't even fight."

"Listen Vaas, I don't think you know her like I do. Didn't I tell you-"

"Yeah, Yeah. She did cage fighting." While Vaas spoke, he waltzed gleefully over to the American guests, crouching down beside the bars. He could see how afraid they were, but by now they had already been broken through torture and heavy threats of death. "If she is such a good fighter, why didn't she win last night? It's alright, I am not going to complain, but now she belongs to me. That was our deal."

"No the deal was Vaas, that you would-"

"Enough! I'm right fucking here for Christ's sake I can take care of myself Benny. I don't need you." Lunetta impulsively interrupted, crossing her arms and fuming over his overprotectiveness of her. Benny looked her in the eyes, hoping she didn't mean what she said, when he saw that she did. He said nothing and turned leaving Vaas alone with Lunetta and the others.

Vaas clapped his hands in mock appreciation, standing up and leaning into the bars of the cage juxtapose to the one she was in.

"Damn Chica. You really fucked up this time. He is your only chance at getting the fuck out of that cage." Vaas turned to follow Benny, but with a swiftness to her reaction she snatched the bars.

"Wait." He stopped in his place, feet together, arms hanging at his sides, he looked over his shoulder just so in a manner that his eyes weren't staring at he but his ears could hear her words.

"Yes?"

"What if I made a deal with you? What if I knew something you didn't?" Vaas spun around and trotted enthusiastically over to the cage.

"I don't think you are in any position to negotiate, but for the sake of my amusement, you can try."

"There is a man... He wears white and inhabits Badtown, I am positive he knows something we could use."

"So you are yet again assuming, Chica?" He crossed his arms and bit his bottom lip.

"Look at where that got you, making assumptions is a bad thing to do, you assumed that the Rakyat were set out to kill you and now you are here."

"I know for a fact that they want me dead and there is only one way to end this." She growled between clenched teeth, grip tightening on the bars.

"You will never learn." He tutted softly, but still listened to her banter.

"Learn what?" She retorted. "Learn how to lose that sense of hope that everything will be handed to me on a silver platter. I know how shitty life can be, Vaas. I don't need you to teach me and I certainly don't need help." Vaas glared at her in silent frustration, his fists clenched tighter and he sighed. "You won't ever respect me unless you give me a chance to prove that I can adapt, that I have what it takes."

"And if you don't? If you die? If you are just some weak pussy, what then? How am I supposed to make an example out of you? You made your mistakes, now it's time for you to pay for them." He was about to leave again, just before he did, she snatched her hand between the bars to grab his arm. His eyes flashed to her and he tugged away angrily, hand instinctively placed on his gun.

"I have made my mistakes, but the whole point of being a pirate is to start a new life, forget your past and continue towards the future. I want to do that... I need to do that." She was just trying to convince him now, anything that would prevent him from ignoring her completely until she died of starvatio, or dehydration, mostly the latter in this heat.

"I'll be back tomorrow with your answer." He replied, turning and leaving. She was lying the entire time, she knew that if she became a pirate bad things would follow. So once she had Vaas's trust, she would go straight to Badtown for Buck and that other man. She sat back down in her cage Indian style and took a deep breath, hoping to calm her jumbled nerves.

She looked to the bright blue sky that was Rook Island's ever weighted beauty and for once in a long while... Relaxed.


	10. 9:True Self

**Chapter 9:True Self**

Lunetta waited until the moon was visible, she could hear the muttering and worried conversations that were exchanged between the trio in the cage beside her. When they attempted to get her attention, she ignored them, she wanted nothing to do with Americans at the moment. She instead thought of food and water, things that she desperately needed.

Vaas returned hours after the moon had settled in the sky, he made no move towards Lunetta's cage. He walked over to the three Americans, opening their cage, he untied and took out the blonde. None of them protested except her, even Lunetta knew what he was gonna do to her and she honestly did not want to worry herself with such things. Vaas dragged her away back to the compound in which neither returned until three hours later, when she was a crying mess, with purple skin and bloody scratches.

He threw her back into the cage carelessly, mumbling off to himself in Spanish as he left her sobbing to herself, with nothing left. Lunetta felt a side of her that wanted to comfort the girl, but it was a split second thought, before it was gone.

When the others had fallen asleep and she was left alone, yet again to her own thoughts she dreamed of freedom. Freedom in the sense, where she could be care free, that freedom came with death.

She stayed up all night, having gone already one full day without sleep, having gone days without food or water. It was mid-day when Vaas came back, a look of satisfaction on his expression. He stopped in front of her cage, leaning into it as his hands held the top bars. She stared up at him weakly, eyes narrowed and color much sicklier to her usual shade.

"I thought about your offer, I sat down and smoked some weed in the process..." He stood up and began gesturing his hands around while pacing in front of the cage. "And I realized to myself." He stopped an looked at her. "Hey? Vaas? Why don't you use this to your advantage?" He asked rhetorically, pacing again. "So I thought, I can let her go, fuck the beautiful woman, and get the information I need." Lunetta made no expression, but within she felt an insuperable rage that would not leave her.

Him of all people would never have the opportunity to take the most private part of her life. That was an intimate experience, she planned on never sharing with anyone. She huffed, rolling her eyes to glare at the ground.

"Either we fuck, or you don't get what you need."

"I am not having sex with you." She plainly stated, he stuck his tongue between his teeth and grinned wildly.

"I love it when a woman fights back." He winked at Lunetta, a sheepish grin on his face.

"Besides why would you want anything to do with me, what about the girl in the cage beside me, it seemed like you had fun with her last night." Vaas shot his eyes in the girls direction, she cowered away from him.

"I didn't get anything from her last night. Instead I threw her to my men, I have no interest in whores..." Vaas looked back to Lunetta. "But you aren't a whore, in fact you are the complete opposite."

"What about all those girls that swarm you?" He rose his arms up as though he was making an offering and had nothing to hide.

"Simply for my amusement, Chica. There is nothing for you to be jealous about. I haven't had sex in months, why would I do that when I can busy myself with money and other important things?"

"It's Luna." She spat out, completely disregarding his following statement, burying her head into her knees, Vaas bit his bottom lip.

"Like the moon?"

"Yeah... The moon." She didn't look up when she heard the chain of the cage unlocking and soon followed in his boots. He plopped down beside her, legs spread out and parted, hands resting on his thighs.

"Your grief makes me want to throw up and that's unusual for me." She lifted her head and smoldered at him.

"Does that mean no sex?"

"No... I am definitely going to fuck you, if not now then soon."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, you and I... We are the same and there's nothing more better than sweet rage filled sex."

"I wouldn't know, I've never had it." She growled out, feeling her muscles tense when his knuckles reached out to caress her cheek.

"Then you are certainly missing out." He huskily stated, she knew what he was playing, he was trying to be seductive, trying to lure her into his trap and get what he wanted. She wouldn't allow that, she scooted away from him, which made his expression scrunch together and his jaw tighten.

"I plan on making you my pet project. In fact you already are, there is no running from this. You either stay here and die or you fuck me and do as I say."

"I would much rather become a pirate." Vaas snorted like a pig, he shook his head and sucked in his bottom lip.

"You had your chance."

"I think you underestimate me. How can I prove that I am worth? All I want is to destroy the Rakyat and get my revenge, then I might be able to sleep in peace."

"You won't be getting that relief here..." He glanced at her, she was startled when he reached to the side and wrapped an arm around her neck pulling her to his chest. She could smell the cigarette smoke and dry blood that resented from his uncleanly self and gagged. "Heh... Don't be so fucking gloomy, you gotta let that shit go or else it will consume you." She for once in a long time actually chuckled at that, but soon went back to her nonchalant demeanor.

"Mind looking at yourself sometime? You would never have become a murderer if it wasn't for your sister." His grip around her neck tightened and she found her neck cranked up to stare at him, his face an inch from hers.

"How the fuck do you know about that?"

"I was Rakyat once too. The woman went through training to become proper wives, your father was planning on marrying you off to some of the girls in our group. Then shit happened-" He tightened further, just barely painful.

"Shut your pretty little mouth, you know nothing about what happened." He growled dangerously, she closed her eyes tightly and wished he would release her. The scent of his morning breath, placing her on near spew mode.

"I don't need to know what happened to know that you weren't like this once."

"You weren't so fucking desensitized and murderous once either. What the fuck happened there?" She placed her hands flat against his chest and shoved him away, he let up on his strength and allowed her distance.

"It's none of your business." She crossed her arms and looked away, there was an awkward silence that resided after those words, until Vaas shifted again in her direction.

"You know, you are lucky."

"Explain."

"I don't give many people mercy, I don't give anyone a second chance. Right now..." He nodded his head, staring off into nothingness blankly. "I am considering it."

"Why?" She looked at him over her shoulder, he shrugged, itching his scar.

"Because I haven't anyone to keep me company anymore, everyone else are fucking idiots, even Benny. I am not blind when it comes to seeing potential. You have the potential Chica, you just have to find your true self." She paused for a moment, Vaas was interested. She had seen that look in a man once before and knew he was not one to be turned down so easily. He was trying to make her his slave by making her think she was all that matter, that he need someone like her. If he planned on using her than she was going to use him, she wasn't one for "no's" either. She mutilated her mind in search of an answer and when she found it.

"Alright... I'll do it."


	11. 10:Related

**Chapter 10:Related**

Lunetta took Vaas for granted, she thought because he was a man that he could easily be made weak and tricked into believing lies. That was in fact one of the many weakness's of man: 1)Their Pride. 2) Their dicks. 3)Their Ego. She had never met a man that didn't have those three weakness and she planned on using them against Vaas. It was a matter of decision, if she didn't do this right, she could risk everything. She was going to let his pride get to his head, make him want her, and then compliment his skills. However, she underestimated the charming, sly, and handsome pirate lord for what he truly was... Evil. That was made her so naive, she had no experience with half the things that Vaas's lifestyle entailed. She couldn't have been more wrong, Vaas knew why she agreed with him or at least that she agreed with him for a reason... She was lying, he knew that much. That was all he needed to know, it didn't anger him, instead it make him want to test how far she would go to keep her secret.

He led her around the compound, showed her where everything was, but she carried a disinterest. He felt like she already knew where everything was, especially when he showed her where the drugs were. Eventually he had her sat down at a couch eating a bowl of rice and drinking from a Luke warm bottle of water. She chowed down in silence through hunger and undying thirst, he remained silent and watched like she was a tiger, he was the poacher. Waiting for his best moment to attack. When she finished she placed her bowl to the side and chugged down the water bottle then patiently stared at him, waiting for their next set of business.

She knew he had plans for her that weren't to subtle of his sexual interests, but she had a plan herself. She was going to do something she had never done before, she was going to seduce him. When the time came she would have his mind on sex, more so than her escape and that is when she will make her strike.

"What exactly is your deal?" He asked randomly, her eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"What do you do? How do you survive? What the fuck is your favorite color? I know nothing about you." This scared her, the Vaas she knew and had heard about wanted nothing to do with her and then there was whoever he was before her; A man who wanted everything to do with her for some odd reason.

"Why does it matter?" Lunetta asked back, running her hands up and down her legs which had grown prickly from not having cared for them. She noticed that she smelled as well and was in need of a bath, not that she was going to tell Vaas that. She would find a way to care for herself and she suspected that Vaas already figured she was in need of major personal hygiene attention.

"I'm in charge of you and I want to know." He sternly sounded, she rolled her eyes, pulling her knees up to her chest.

"My favorite color is blue. I draw, I hunt, I use to work at my father's car garage before the incident." She didn't want to refer to the "incident" any more than as it was said. It still bothered her and it would continue to bother her, before she felt things were right again. Until the Rakyat were off the face of the earth.

"What else?"

"I don't like assholes or people who pretend to be smart, I have never killed someone in my entire life, I have never had drugs."

"More." What more could she possibly tell him other than personal information? She didn't want to give too much information about herself, she wouldn't be staying long.

"What-"

"What was your childhood like?" He crossed his arms, waiting for her to delve further into her past.

"It wasn't anything you'd want to know about." He sat up, leaning forward on his elbows.

"Well I want to know about it." He growled out, it wasn't fair, how come she couldn't ask about his childhood and he could ask about hers? It sickened her, she knew she would have to deal with it however, otherwise he would lose interest in her and most likely decapitate her.

"My father left when I was young and my mother died shortly before." It wasn't parallel to the truth, but it was the truth none the less.

"Your father, ey?"

"Yeah... I was left to take care of my brother."

"And you were?"

"Sixteen." Vaas paused, his entire body seemed to tense, his eyes widened. She didn't understand what shocked him so, but he looked as if he had seen a ghost.

"I heard about that, my father wanted me to marry you, regardless of your age to mine. He said you were a woman worth being with."

"What?" Lunetta's eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head.

"How could he even know about me. My father had no involvement in the Rakyat." Vaas itched his head, tightly closing his eyes, he was stuck in a deep thought.

"No... No..." He shook his head vigorously, then began to rock back and forth. "Your mother was... She was meant to wed my father, but she left with someone else. Your father I am guessing." He slouched back in his chair, pleased with information he hadn't recollected on in years. Lunetta froze, she still didn't know things about her mother, or her father. She certainly was willing to assume that the man who resided in their household years ago was not her father, but she had no evidence. It made her afraid, the last things she wanted was to dip into the past, of nearly a half a decade ago. "That's so fucking weird. You and I..." He gestured between us. "Have a strong connection via one another, I think that perhaps we can come to enjoy that." He slapped his thigh as though he remembered more. "Yes, that's what I will call you, La Luna De Sangre." Her expression grew fierce, she hated that nickname.

"No nicknames."

"Yes nicknames, Benny told me about it and I really like it." She rose her head and looked around for perhaps any sign of Benny, he didn't know how to keep things to himself and that angered her. "He isn't here if that's who you are looking for, you pissed him off last night, so he went to God know's where."

"Please don't call me by that name."

"How did you get it?" She didn't reply, it was a name given to her in her cage fighting days, a name she regretted ever getting... Ever accepting... Ever receiving.

"If you won't tell me, I will just ask Benny." Benny most likely will give the wrong side of the story, so she decided to just get it out of the way. Maybe he will leave her alone about it, if she did.

"Fine... I'll tell you." She grunted out, crossing her arms and beginning her story.


	12. 11:A Nightmare to tell

**Chapter 11**

 _A lone girl, no older than seventeen. Bruises marred her once perfect skin, messy hair scraggly and pinned up, fists marked with scars and clenched tight. A black duffle bag hung from her shoulder, a black tank top and jean shorts. She walked down the single trail leading up to the location of the cage. A hell where chicken fights occurred and bloody battles took place._

 _She had grown use to the thrill of the fight, the pay was good and she had no other way to support herself, aside from working in the garage. This gave her good money and most importantly respect. Men from the village, who had once sought her hand in marriage now cowered in her presence, she felt known. At the top of her game and ready for whatever came her way._

 _She stepped further down the path until it broadened, what was once dark, was now clearly lit by large lights on wooden posts. Continuing she found and heard the usual sounds of a broken mob, yelling chants and spitting obscenities, throwing their fists in the air and encouraging whichever fight was on._

 _She squeezed past their sweaty bodies as they were to caught up in the ongoing fight to know any better. She angrily pushed forward until she came upon a square wooden table. A man sat here, who collected the funds and hosted the fights, he passed out the paycheck and announced the gain. Although he was in charge of a dangerous thing, he was no more than an inch shorter than Lunetta. His head was bald and if she didn't know any better he had the thickness of a skeleton._

 _He immediately wrote her name down upon seeing her, she had been there countless times and every man knew her as Luna. She passed the desk and exited the crowd towards a shack that stood alone in the darkness of the night. There she rested her items and prepared for the throw down. She always won, only having lost once in the beginning, but quickly redeemed herself._

 _It had become an addiction, she found herself constantly wanting to be better, to improve herself. She left everyday before the sun went up to hunt, once she had found her game she practiced. She made food for Barsul and left for work. On the days of the fights, she sometimes just watched, calculating everyone's move and determining their strikes._

 _She wrapped her knuckles with tape, but that made no difference, she broken her knuckle once when she punched to hard. The doctor told her to stop, but she couldn't, she did this to relieve the stress. She did this to help with the every day pain of losing her mother, of taking care of herself and Barsul. She didn't lie to herself, she enjoyed inflicting pain and when she entered that ring, she changed into a completely different person._

 _When she was ready, she left the shack, she walked over to the cage and waited until the fight had finished. When a fight was done, the men were silenced, the failure was dragged away if necessary, and the next two fighters were called. Her name had sounded and she entered through the open gate. She leaned against one side and waited, it was then that his name was called... Jingo._

 _Before her he was the best, he still was and never had she been put him in the ring with him, but she had seen what he was capable of. Men had died in the cage when they were up against him, it was not surprising to find that the crowd was shocked. The towering man had entered the cage, the gate slamming behind him. His intimidating muscles and thick figure; his hair slicked back and sweat with dried blood hanging from his skin._

 _She felt her fear, she knew he felt it to. He was stronger than her, older than her, and there was no chance she could make this fight. She kept a different logic however, she never thought positive, or negative when going into a situation. This way their was room for both disappointment and pride. The gate was locked and mangled words began to drift from the chapped lips of men surrounding the cage._

 _The thick air of the night was sucked harshly into Lunetta's lunges as Jingo made the first hit. A gut punch which sent re tumbling back in shock, he chuckle at this raising his hands in praise._

 _"You foolish girl! I have been waiting to put you down a peg." She could barley hear those words, which were spoken in his thick accent. She felt dull, stuck in her own shuck and unable to produce a coherent response._

 _"Shut up..." She hissed back breathlessly, when he grabbed her hair and tossed her around behind him. She felt to the dirt ground with a grunt. She tried to think of a move, anything that would get her this money. Beating him would put her on a pedestal and she felt she needed that at the moment._

 _He kicked her in the ribs before she could react, it took a great effort to push herself up to her feet and drift herself around with shaky legs._

 _"Fucking girl, look at how pathetic she is." That just about did, she looked up at him with the sharpest eyes past those few strands of hair that fled the messy bun. She flung forward, only to drop down and swipe his feet out from under him with her leg._

 _When he was on the ground, she planned to jump on him, but he caught her ankle and yanked her brutally to the ground placing a fist to her knee. An audible crack echoed through the ring, in which everyone heard and silenced. She fell back with a pained yelp, holding her knee in one hand. Jingo stood up and stared down with no pity, nor mercy, he simply snorted._

 _"I guess this means I win." She wasn't done, she knew she had to live for Barsul, but wasn't going to last this embarrassment._

 _"No... Not yet." He turned to her, a strict expression on his face, he snatched her throat with one hand, lifting we up from the ground. He punched her once expecting her to beg, but she gripped his wrist and attempted to make a crippling move. He punched her again, this time harder, her nose cracked and blood poured freely from it. The blood leaked between her lips and she spat it out at him, he growled punching her again._

 _It was a mystery that she had survived his fists, which did not stop punching her face until he grew tired. He dropped her at his feet and hesitantly stepped back, shocked himself that she could take so much pain. Her teeth were fine, it was everything else that was screwed up. Large cuts scattered across her cheeks, blood covered her face which dropped profusely from her nose. Both eyes were swollen and she barley had enough conscious thought left to move her body._

 _"Damn..." He muttered to her, kneeling down at her side. "Not bad kid, I credit you." He patted her thigh and she winced, he stared at her for a pregnant second. No one said a word, probably didn't even breath. "La Luna de Sangre..." He mumbled under his breath, she looked at him as best as she could. "The Blood moon." He lifted her up in his arms and carried her from the cage to the shack where she pulled the ripped tape from her knuckles. He waited until she finished sitting on a stool across from her, she limped around with a broken knee. Then he said something she would never forget. "In all my years of life, I have never seen such mental strength and endurance. You can't be broken so easily and I respect you. You could do better than this though, never come back again." She didn't reply to him, but he finished with a strict, "Or I will kill you." He carried her to the village doctor and left, she remained there all morning until the sun rose and she went back home to Barsul. She never went back to the cages, but the name stuck with her... Somehow it spread and she would be forever known as the Blood Moon._


	13. 12:Defiance

**Chapter 12: Defiance**

Vaas made no comments when she was finished with her story, he just sat there and stared off into space. She assumed he hadn't listened at all and that angered her to no end. She wasted her time telling her stupid story, for no reason whatsoever, she was wasting her time anyways sitting here, she needed to take advantage of him and she needed to do it fast, but what did she know about seduction?

She wasn't exactly charming through her eyes either, the last thing she wanted was failing and him killing her. She had a job, a purpose, the man in white would help her get her revenge and that was her destination.

"You know Vaas..." She lowered her voice into a deep alluring tone, rolling his name off her tongue like creamy goodness. His eyes flashed to hers, she ran a finger over the edge of the armrest of the couch, licking her lips and doing what she had seen numerous woman do before. "Telling you about my story makes me think about yours. It's so sexy to find that you found your leadership through murder and deceit... Actually, quite arousing if you ask me." She hesitated with fluttering eyes lids when seeing his hazel eyes go dark and lusty. She had seen that look in Tanik when she was yelling at him to leave her alone... He wanted her. She held back the tremors of nervousness that racked through her body and slowly sat up off the couch.

She walked over to him, one foot after the other with languid movements. She didn't know what she was going to do once she had made it to Vaas, but it was already decided for her when she tripped over a sharp stone and fell forward onto his lap. Her hands flat against his chest, she could feel his breath on her like hot flames and turned her head away, before rearranging herself.

She realized that she was in a very intimate position with the pirate lord at that moment. Her chest pressed lightly against his, head elevated up to where she was staring down at him, and knees on either side of his hips. She wanted to run away, the way her body was reacting to him was not in anyway usual for her. She had never experienced this close a proximity with a man before, especially a man who had every intention to claim her as his.

He noticed her fear and planned to fuel it, his hands slapped down onto her ass, gripping it tightly over the thin fabric. She gasped as he felt her there, spreading her cheeks and pushing her further to him.

"Arousing, heh?"

"Y-Yes." She stuttered out, her fingers gripping tighter onto his shirt, she bit her bottom lip and attempted to contain her beating heart. Then he pushed her down till their lower halves collided with and her center was sharp against his erected groin, the bulge sticking very prominently past the thick cargo pants and against hers. She regretted this, having never felt anything like this before, having never done anything like this... She shook her head.

"Kiss me." Yet again, he fueled seeing how long she would go before cracking from this feigned persona she had made for herself since agreeing with him. Just because Vaas never had loved or liked anyone in the past few years, didn't exactly mean he couldn't lust. He had little sex because of his work and his pickiness when it came to woman, but he craved her and he for one had never felt such craving before.

She nearly moved to get up, but his firm grip on either cheek of her ass proved difficult to break from.

"Kiss me." He growled again, expecting her comply. She had never kissed anyone before, ironic that her first kiss would go to the most unworthy of men.

"And then what? I want something in return."

"For that..." His hands traveled up to caress her waist, arms raveling around it lean forward press a smooth kiss to her neck. "You must give me more."

"How insatiable are you?"

"For a man who hasn't had sex in quite some time..." He bit down harder, causing her body to lurch up and she yelped. This was a VERY bad idea on her part. "Very." He hissed into her ear. "It might take several times before I am thoroughly pleased, or until you are dripping with my essence, filled to the brim with it... Would you like that?"

"Fuck you." She ground out, pushing away from him, his grip held her much more firmly.

"No... Fuck you... Because that is exactly what I am going to do."

"Stop. Stop it right now." She protested, feeling his hands slowly inch up towards her breasts, she shut her eyes tightly, pushing him away from herself as best as she could.

"Vaas!" Her eyes flashed open, she couldn't have been more happy to hear the voice, Vaas unconsciously released her and she took that chance to scurry from him. She stepped away from the couch where he sat, Benny approaching with long strides. Vaas groaned and rolled his eyes, standing up, he turned to the man and faked a smirk.

"What's the problem Hermano?"

"It's Bad Town. A drug deal got to shit, there was a shoot out and Hoyt wants you to handle the Rakyat's temper." Badtown! When Lunetta heard the name her ears perked up, Vaas cursed to himself.

"Shit." He muttered under his breath, Benny looked in Lunetta's direction.

"What are you doing out of your cage?"

"I was-"

"It's none of your business Hermano, I was gonna put her nack in anyways."

"What?!" Her fists clenched and her teeth gritted, he crossed his arms and glared sternly at her.

"I can't just let you go walking around and doing whatever you want." Vaas snorted. "Who the fuck do you think I am? Fucking Willy Wonka or something? Benny put her away." Vaas turned to leave stopping when Benny didn't do as he said at the sharp rage filled glare that she sent in his direction. Vaas slanted himself to look at her comfortable, annoyance written all over his every move.

"Who the fuck do you think I am? I am going with you." She demanded, nonchalantly somehow, stepping forward without fear until she was an inch from Vaas's body. Some part of her hoping intimidation would work, but she knew better.

"Excuse me?" He remained with a straight face. They stared into each other's eyes for what felt like hours, but was only seconds. "Fine, you can go with me, but if you try anything-"

"I know you'll kill me."

"No... I'm gonna torture the shit out of you first and then kill you, then drag you from hell and kill you again." She broke their stare, but his hand shot up quick to grab her chin and pull her gaze back to his. "You do understand that whatever fucking game you're playing, i'm not playing it anymore and I make the rules around here. It's done, you do as I say and be a good dog, understand?" The tone of his voice was dripping with heinous meaning and violent promise, his eyes proved that he was not joking whatsoever. He was merely curious as to how this would play out, but if he caught the slightest bit of her escapade... He wouldn't hesitate to make her live the longest and most painful death he had ever given.

"I U-Understand." She stuttered in turn, the corners of his lips quirking up, he released the threatening grip on her chin.

"Good. Let's go." He walked on his way before she could follow, Benny grabbed her forearm. She glanced at him, his eyes were worried as was his features.

"You be careful, okay?" For a moment she forgot everything, he cared about her as a friend and more, while she only cared about him as a friend. She took what she needed, pulling herself into his arms and giving him a hug, he didn't mind, wrapping his arms around her in turn. Vaas whistled breaking them from their embrace, she tore herself from him and walked up to Vaas. Benny watching as she left, feeling a sudden uplifting confidence that gave him the strength to go and do his duties for the day... He loved her.

* * *

"I get up, and nothing gets me down. You got it tough~. I've seen the toughest a~ll around~." Vaas thumped his fingers on the steering wheel as he dramatically sung to the music. The entire time Lunetta kept her distance, thinking about what she would do once they arrived in Badtown. She thought it would be music the entire ride there, but was surprised when Vaas turned the radio off looking between her and the road every so often.

"So... Uh... You and Benny, huh?" Lunetta's eyebrows furrowed, she looked over at him to see his strict jaws, taut and lips pursed. His eyes narrowed on the dirt road they were driving down, making fluent curves and turns.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm asking uh..." Vaas itched the back of his head and shrugged. "Are you guys a thing?"

"What?" She shot back, eyebrows furrowing with confusion, she immediately assumed that Benny had lied about them being a 'thing'. Vaas rose one hand in defense from the wheel, eyes still focused on the road.

"I'm just asking. I mean, you two are so close with one another. It makes me wonder, you know? Even if he hasn't fucked you yet, I can see Benny being that prudish type of guy." Lunetta groaned, rolling her eyes and falling limp into the window.

"Fuck you Vaas."

"Is that a yes, or a no? I am getting mixed vibes from you."

"It's a fucking no. Jesus!"

"Alright, Alright." He exclaimed, a smirk suddenly forming again. "I was just curious." He let out a hearty chuckle, seeming much less gloomier than he was before he asked the question.

"So you don't want to fuck Benny?"

"What the fuck Vaas?" She hit him in the knee with a closed fist and the car came to a full stop, everything froze as Vaas directed his gaze towards her.

"You don't ever fucking do that again. I am in charge here, remember?"

"Yes. I remember." She croaked out, he pulled his foot off the break and the car moved forward. Getting closer and closer to Lunetta's true destination.


	14. 13:Welcome to Bad Town

**Chapter 13: Welcome to Bad Town**

Badtown was no different from what she had seen in her dream, the conditions as said were inhumane and certainly not something she was accustomed to having been raised in Amanaki which was peaceful and innocent. Vaas didn't let her stray off once, guiding her through the village, he would look back every so often to make sure she was following.

"I could just sell you Chica, right here and get a nice price to. You'd have no choice, but to fuck me when I want you to."

"I would rather kill myself." She shot back, he laughed deep from his throat, he stopped in front of the shack with a large sign hung over the open door labeled 'Guns and Supplies.' Vaas looked over at Lunetta, a warning on his face.

"Stay here and if I come back and you aren't here, I will hang you with a noose." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arm as if she had anywhere to go.

"That would be doing me a favor, bozo." He stuck his tongue at her before disappearing into the store. Leaning back into the door frame, she took this moment to look around. She couldn't see the man and White, more Buck, or anyone for that matter that appeared in her dream.

The one that was remotely familiar was the setting, which was as it was... Horrid. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, running off would be a bad idea because Vaas **would** find her and he **would** kill her. She just sat here, finally realizing the mess she had gotten into, there was no way she was gonna get her revenge at this point.

Her eyes flashed open when she felt a tug at the hem of her shorts, she thought it was Vaas until she looked down to find a little girl. About the age of 9, she wore a hand woven white sundress and bore no shoes on her feet. Her long black hair was pinned up at the top of her head in a bun. She appeared to be much cleaner than the environment that she was in and Lunetta couldn't withhold the sharp longing in her chest. The one that told her there was something to discover from this little girl.

Her eyes brows furrowed and she pushed herself up to her two feet, arms still crossed. The girl held a necklace in her hand, it was carven of wood and... Lunetta would recognize that necklace anywhere, her mother use to wear it time after time until one day she told her she had lost it.

"Where did you get that little girl?" The girl held it up to Lunetta with one hand while using the other to point in the direction of an old woman who sat at the patio of a shack across the way. She was looking off into the distance with a shallow expression, her eyes dull and obviously she was in deep thought.

Lunetta took the necklace and before she could stop her the little girl was off and running down a random path of the town. Lunetta fiddled with the wooden carving in her hand, it was the carving of a tiger strung up by a worn out rope. She looked up narrowing her eyes on the old woman who sat limply in her wooden chair, her grey hair pulled back into a pony tail, wrinkles forming the features that put her in her golden years, a rainbow blanket covered her and she showed no discomfort to the humid air that swallowed the island.

Lunetta on impulse began to approach the woman, not thinking of the consequences that would follow had Vaas found she was gone from her place. She didn't care even if she had acknowledged them, stopping at the first step up to the patio, the woman did not look in her direction.

"Uh... Excuse me." Lunetta began, she held up the necklace by the rope. "Where did you get this?" There was a short silence as Lunetta waited for an answer, the woman shifted, a small smile forming on her lips.

"Your father gave it to me... You are the Blood Moon if I am not mistaken?" Lunetta was puzzled, her father had left, he never carried the necklace and how would this woman known anything about him?

"My father, he never carried this necklace. My mother had until she lost it."

"No... Your real father, he had given that to her and one day she gave it back, your father had given it to me in turn." Lunetta's eyes widened, her interest peaked beyond all comprehension and she was shaking to the point of pure anxiety.

"F-Father?" She chattered out, a lump developed at the peak of her throat and no more words would leave.

"Hoyt Volker..." She finally looked into Lunetta's eyes. "He is your father." Lunetta gulped audibly, unable to think straight or produce the correct words. She was frozen in her own shock, her anger from his absence, from his name... Did he know? He couldn't possibly have known... Her mother? Why did her mother keep this from her? It must had been a lie.

"I-I don't believe you." She didn't know why, but after forcing the words out a single tear trailed down her cheek, her face still hardened with the stubbornness of not showing her weakened state.

"I would not lie to you my dear, I thought you had already known." The woman's voice was stricken with apprehension and sorrow, Lunetta stepped up the patio and sat down on the edge of the first step, twirling the twine that was the necklace sharply in her hand, she stared down at the dirt.

"Do you know the story?"

"I do." Lunetta glanced back up at the woman, her utterance much less strict and determined, her heart was bleeding out into the island and rising up into the clouds. She felt lost... She needed to know.

"Tell me."

* * *

 _It was a cold night, Marisol had bundled her nude body further into the covers to prevent the cold air from reaching her skin. Her teeth chattered and her back turned to the snoring man... The man, her feigned lover, wasn't anything special to her, he was a decoy simply for Hoyt's comfort, not that Hoyt was at all comfortable with his wife being in the arms of another man or in this case bed; he would much rather deal with it than deal with the only woman he ever truly loved getting killed._

 _Marisol rose up from the covers reaching into a drawer of the end table beside her bed. She pulled out the necklace, the wooden totem hanging from its rope. She placed it around her neck and looked back over to the man alongside her in her bed... She didn't know this man, she didn't love him, she didn't want him._

 _She bore a child for him simply because he was her cover, Hoyt's cover to keep his one and only lover protected, but finally she had decided. She could no longer handle dealing with this, not seeing her true lover alongside her for months upon months, him not being there for the birth of his only child, his only daughter, his only offspring._

 _She had decided that it was time to let him go, for the good of her life and her children's. Even if the man she slept with now was a pig, who never waited for her pleasure in bed and never kissed her in the morning, she would have to break through all the chains that Hoyt had wrapped her in and relieve herself from him... Forever._

 _Standing up from the bed, she dressed quickly into a bright blue spaghetti strapped dress and left. She walked to Badtown, where she paid a man to take her to South, the night was still young when she arrived, where she would pay another man to drive her to the compound where Hoyt resided. The bright red doors were wide open, beckoning to her, telling her that her new life was soon to begin._

 _She could feel the knot building in her chest. She derived her persistence from one principle, her children. She entered the camp, where bright lights beamed down onto the dirt path surrounding the large mansion that was the heart of the compound. Men had known her well and knew not to mess with her despite her beauty, they reasoned that their heads were not worth losing._

 _She entered the building which seemed desolate and quiet, hesitantly stepping up the stairs, she turned left, there double oak doors stood, intimidating her without reason. She shouldn't be afraid to tell the man she loved how she felt, but it wasn't always like this. **He** wasn't always like this, he used to be a pirate who did petty work, now he was a man who did horrible things and had lost that small sense of humanity within him._

 _He still loved her, he had told her that, but there was no doubt other woman had gotten involved. She was too afraid to confront him before and tell him that he was losing himself, that what he was doing to her was wrong. She loved him, but she also loved Lunetta, Marisol took those death defying steps toward his door and rose a fisted hand to knock gently upon it._

 _"Come in for Christ's sake, you don't have to fucking knock!" His voice bellowed from the other side and fearfully, she grabbed the silver knob turning it in an agonizingly slow manner before pushing it open slightly and popping her head in._

 _Hoyt looked up from his desk, a single lamp glowing onto the many stacks of paper and pens that cluttered it,a pair of reading glasses hung from his nose, he always talked about contacts, his stern face turned suddenly into pure happiness and she felt that he was in fact genuinely excited to see her._

 _"Marisol, my love, I wasn't expecting to see you here." He dropped the pen in his hand with a thud and stood up from his desk, rounding it to rush towards her into a warm embrace._

 _She wanted to cry, cry because she had to break his heart like this, but it had to be done. She wrapped her arms around him, one last time in turn, pressing a hand to his chest and gently pushing him away after. He thought nothing of it, placing a hand to her back and ushering her to one of the seats in front of his desk, he sat down in the one beside it, holding his hands over the ones in her lap._

 _It was a hug or hand holding, but never a kiss... Not anymore, she missed his lips on hers, when it was more than just for the pleasure of sex._

 _"Is everything alright dear? How is my child?"_

 _"She is alright." Marisol croaked out, at the hint in her tone and the silent begging in her eyes, he paused in his happiness and pleasure._

 _"What happened? Is something wrong? Did she get hurt? What about that bastard of a man? Did he touch her?" She shook her head to every question, he scowled._

 _"Then why are you here?" He spat at her, it hit her so hard, she no longer felt that fear, or pain that kept her from tearing him to pieces. She pulled her hands from his in which he immediately took in a negative way, sitting back into the seat and glaring at her. "Marisol Yanajova (Yana-Hova) Grace, what in gods name is wrong?"_

 _"Is it that much of an issue that I came to see you?" He rolled his eyes, crossing his legs._

 _"It is when I am working." He explained, in his mind work had become the greatest of priority._

 _"It's always about work now." Her tone rose in volume and her irritation behind all that pain began to show. "All about drugs and money..." Her hispanic accent becoming more prominent in her rage. "And even other woman." Hoyt's head sagged, he was feeling that guilt, but did not want to show it. "I love you." He scored forward, straightening up and grabbing her hands in his again._

 _"I know you do, but-"_

 _"But you can't love me." She pulled her hands one by one from his. "Not because you don't want to, but because your job calls for otherwise, I can't do it anymore." His eyes widened at the realization of her syntax._

 _"What do you mean?" She reached up for the necklace around her neck and lifted it up from herself as if it rose into the heavens from her soul. She grabbed his hand placing it in his palm and closing his fingers over it, all the while keeping eye contact. "One day you will meet your daughter and you will understand why I did this, I am leaving this one last time never to come back again Hoyt. You will never see me, never know me, never... Love me." He shook his head pushing the necklace back towards her._

 _"I can't accept this, you are my woman, I won't let you leave."_

 _"If I was your woman, you wouldn't have chosen another man for me, you wouldn't have become a criminal, and you wouldn't be having sex with other women." She reached a hand up to cup his chin, he admired its softness one last time, taking a mental image of her in his mind forever. "You wouldn't be consumed by drugs and money, you wouldn't hate it when I interrupt your work, and most importantly you wouldn't hide who you truly are... You wouldn't hide your love for me."_

 _"I can change."_

 _"No... You can't. This is what you will always be now and I accept that." She leaned her head forward into his, brushing their noses and lips against one another's. "I can't allow our child to be subjected to this though. She will be as strong and as smart as you-"_

 _"And as beautiful and kind as you." He finished for her as she had said it many times before. "Give me one last night to hold you." She shook her head, no matter how much she wanted that as well, it shouldn't end that way._

 _"I can't tonight, but in another hell I will find you again." He wove his free hand through her hair, the other tightly gripping the totem._

 _"Not hell, you don't belong in hell. You're an angel and you will always be mine, but I understand that angels and demons don't belong together... One last kiss." She nodded her head and smiled softly, leaning forward to press her lips against his beginning an intimate revere._

 _It was split in half. She stood and left. He cried. She cried. He yelled. She screamed. He threw items from his desk. She moaned in pain. He woke up alone. She woke up with Luna._

* * *

She panicked when his rough hand slapped down onto her shoulder and grabbed it fiercely, spinning her around to stare into his darkened eyes.

"What the fuck did I tell you about staying where you were?! You didn't listen! Not one fucking bit!" He rose a closed fist about to punch her, not expecting her to flinch away.

"I'm sorry." She squealed having been in such a soft state anyways, she couldn't handle this. She was already stressed out, sleep deprived, and mourning... Then this had to happen. Barsul was her half-brother, but that didn't change anything. It was the fact that Hoyt was her father, she couldn't handle that truth so she pushed it aside. Or at least she tried to push it aside and the flood gates broke down and fell to the ground as she had fallen into Vaas's arms, looking for comfort that she could not find anywhere else, she didn't know why she was seeking it in the strong arms of a murderer... But she was a murderer too, she had it in her blood and there was more times than one that she had thought about digging a blade into another's skull. She wasn't who she thought she was, she wasn't ever who she was made to be.

Vaas didn't know how to react to her clinging to him, his first thought was to push her away, but for some odd reason he had liked the feel of her body molded to his. He wanted to know what suddenly broke her, he wrapped an arm awkwardly around her shoulder and looked up at the old woman in her chair.

"What happened here?" Then she was gone, pulling herself away, wiping the tears and crossing her arms. In her hand he saw the necklace that she held so tightly and he immediately placed that as the object of her sorrow. "What did you give her?" He looked back to the woman who was extremely worried, everyone knew who Vaas was.

"A gift... It was her mother's." Vaas shot back over to Lunetta, nudging her shoulder, she sniffled before her eyes met his, he held an open palm out.

"Give it."

"No. It's not yours it's none of your business." She sobbed back, he couldn't control the fiery rage and grabbed her throat with a fast hand, he shoved her into the wooden column holding the patio.

"It is my business, you belong to me now. You have belonged to me since you challenged me, since you sat yourself on my lap and teased me, since you called me out in the middle of the fucking compound..." He brought his face really close till she could barely feel his lips on hers. "I own you." He whispered. "Now give me it." She shakily held her palm out and handed it to him, closing her eyes, he released her and she let her head droop. She had died inside, losing everything and gaining only in bad karma.

He held the totem up by the rope before his face, he decided he would keep it as payment for all the shit she has said to him, when she finally proved her valor, he would let her have it when he thought she was ready. He shoved it for now into the pocket of his cargo pants.

"I will give it to you when you deserve it."

"You can't do that, that belongs to her." The woman protested, Vaas glared at her and she cowered away, he was in charge now and he would remain in charge.

"I got bad news. Buck wants to meet up and you are coming with because I don't trust you anywhere else." He turned leaving the conversation at that, Lunetta silently followed, the old woman nodded towards her in pity... The sad part was...

Lunetta had accepted it.


	15. 14:Buck

**Chapter 14: Buck**

Lunetta for some reason was jittery and Vaas didn't understand why, she kept her distance from him as they approached the bar. He knew whatever that woman had told her effected her in a way that was emotional and personal, that strong, bitchy woman he knew appeared gone. Vaas stopped at the door to the bar and leaned against it turning to her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He stood up and she stepped away, flinching as if he was going to hurt her. He didn't like this Luna, he wanted the one that stood fiercely before him and dared defy him, he then considered that maybe this was the real her, that she was acting the entire time, but he wasn't going to believe that. He didn't trust her and went with the reasoning that she was faking this.

He opened the door and gestured her in, she timidly did as requested and entered the bar, she recognized that unruly scent and the dim lighting.

"Keep moving." Vaas grunted, she stepped forward and turned into the main section of the bar, looking across the room she found where Buck was, looking where she had seen the man in white, she found where he was. She had made it, she had found the man in white and all she wanted to do was talk to him... Ask him questions, but Vaas wouldn't allow that.

Vaas walked past Lunetta, expecting her to follow, the man in white glanced over for a split second, but nothing longer. He was going to listen, he was going to spy. Is that how he knew about her? How long had he been here? Vaas groaned taking a seat across from Buck, he waited for Lunetta to sit beside him. It was quiet mostly, until Buck lifted his boots off the table and leaned forward.

"So, about the drug incident this morning, I don't think Hoyt would be so pleased to find that it was interrupted." Vaas rolled his eyes, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"The Rakyat are becoming a problem, you are supposed to be fucking maintaining this shit hole of a town and you're not." Buck smiled at Vaas's accusation.

"I take care of the stragglers that escape your camp, but other than that this isn't my island."

"No, it's the people's island." Lunetta interfered, Vaas stomping his boot down onto her bare foot, she let out a hiss in response.

"It sure is my dear and what is your name?"

"Fuck you." Vaas pressed most of his body weight into his foot, nearly crushing the tiny bones within it, she clamped her eyes tight and clenched her teeth.

"Manners Luna, unless you want me to lose your good luck charm." Lunetta closed her mouth shut audibly and rolled her eyes, busying her eyes with the man in white at the bar. She considered going to him, but Lunetta couldn't lose that necklace it was all she wanted and all she needed. Vaas removed his boot, Buck smirking throughout her entire pain.

"Now, this island may be under my control, but the business is under Hoyt's and you work for Hoyt like I do motherfucker, get your shit done."

"Wait one second Vaas..." Buck held his hands up in amusement. "You are in charge of the stock on this island. That ain't my-" Vaas slammed up from his seat angrily.

"I don't have fucking time for your shitty excuses, if you don't start participating Buck, I don't give a fuck what Hoyt says your head is coming off." Vaas glanced at Lunetta, who had a hint of a smile on her face, a part of her was saying that Vaas was definitely the strongest person she would ever know and the most intimidating.

"Come on Luna, we have more important things to do." Vaas snatched her wrist and lifted her up from her chair, walking her out of the Bar. She paused in that moment, when they were halfway through the village and she had enough of being on Vaas's chain. She yanked her hand from his and slapped him across the face angrily, Vaas then paused, he was at odds with himself on whether he should beat the shit out of her or fuck her senseless.

There was that girl he knew, the one that made him so desperately in need of her attention. He wanted her to touch him he dared her to touch him again, slap him, caress him, punch him, just touch him. It made him insane, he had never thought so much from just one action, he never considered much or contemplated and she made him do those things. He glared back into her eyes and could see the fear there, she was afraid, but here she stood defiant to his harsh stature. She was a woman he never knew, but he wish he did. She was a goddess he wanted to touch, but never could, she was the sunset that brought light onto his abode, but he would never feel it's warmth.

He felt an emotion, but it was brief and undetectable. He slapped her right across the face after those few seconds of thought. She stumbled back a bit, but collected herself quickly, a shaky hand reaching up to caress her red cheek, she had enough. She looked back up into his eyes, forgetting completely about the necklace, about recent events. She stepped forward and went up on her tippy toes, chest extended, eyes blazing with a fury.

"I am done." She ground out, turning and walking back to the bar, he watched... He didn't stop her, not because he was done, he would never be done, he didn't stop her because he knew she would be back and next time he would be prepared, next time he would win.

Lunetta stomped her bare feet closer and closer towards the bar in hopes of finding the man in white. She knew to keep her distance from Buck, but for him that was not an option. She entered the pub yet again, this time a much fiercer expression on her face, when she turned into the main area of the bar, her eyes shot straight to the man in white, Buck didn't make any movement when he saw her enter again as for the man in white, he knew the answers and she needed them.

She approached cautiously, of course feeling the eyes of many upon her, a set belonging to Buck. She took her spot beside him as though this was the same dream, he did not bother to look at her. The bartender came up and gestured to a beer he held in his hand.

"No thank you. I don't drink." Lunetta replied sharply, the man nodded and put the beer back, before tending to the unclean glasses. Lunetta crossed her arms and leaned forward, she stared at him, seeing that he was peeking at her from his peripheral vision. "I know who you are." He gulped down his whiskey audibly and put it down with a clink.

"Do you now? Are you sure you haven't lost your sanity?"

"That's been gone for a while... And no. I had a dream... It told me that you have the answers."

"A dream? How insane, to what exactly?"

"To everything." The man lowered his glasses and stared blankly at her with his black and cold eyes.

"Should I trust you after seeing who you just walked in here with?"

"You're a speculator... You don't trust anyone anyways." He snorted and nodded his head, before his glasses when make up.

"I like you kid. Meet me at edge of the forest around five... We will go for a walk."

"Who says I should trust you?" He shrugged.

"Don't have much of a choice now do you? If you aren't there at five on the dot, you won't get this opportunity again." He turned and left immediately after, leaving Lunetta to her thoughts as she always was left... Brain dead, exhausted, and utterly lost. She hadn't realized her eyes slowly start to drift shut and her chin lean into the heart of her palm, elbow digging into the wood of the table. She fell into oblivion, without a second thought.


	16. 15:Goodbye for Now

**Chapter 15: Goodbye for Now**

 _She was holding him and the world seemed so still, it seemed so lifeless as his body dangled in her arms and she blamed it all on herself. It was her fault that_ ** _he_** _was dead, tears streamed down her cheeks and her head throbbed. Her heart was at a dull thud and her hand clasping tighter onto his bare, his cold shoulders, she pulled him closer till he was firmly fastened against herself. This man was not Barsul... He wasn't Benny nor Hoyt..._

 _When she stared down into his blank expression she saw someone else, but she couldn't see who, she couldn't understand these feelings for someone she barley knew. This man was no one and he was there... Dead... Lifeless... Stone eyes staring back into her soul and all the misery of not knowing or ever confidence vanished. She couldn't explain it, but perhaps this man was-_

"HELP!", a loud shrill of a scream shot Lunetta from her sleep, the beer glass that had remained after the man in white's exit tumbled over and clashed to the ground. Lunetta looked around with bloodshot eyes, sweaty skin, and batted breath.

"HELP! SOMEONE!" That voice came again, coming directly from outside, the bartender approached to complain about the beer bottle, but Lunetta had already got up and blitzed from the bar. She slammed the door open on her way out, eyes scanning across the village for any signs of distress.

"ABUELA!" It was a child, Lunetta sprinted out further into the village down the small incline from the bar, she hopped over a ditch, bare feet covered in wet mud. She followed the sobs and panicked voices, stopping at the opening of the village near the gun store.

There Vaas stood, an arm extended out, a gun fitted loosely within his hand, it was held up towards the head of the girl from earlier, the one that had given her back her mother's necklace. She couldn't have been no older than Barsul and here Vaas was about to shoot her straight between the eyes as she begged in front of him on her knees.

"Now I am going to tell you one last time, give me back the necklace you little rat!" Vaas angrily snarled at her, now there were many reasons as to why Lunetta despised Vaas, but she did what she had to. She never thought she would see him again, but he stayed and she wanted to know why, she wanted her necklace back of course, but she wasn't thinking of that when she left him.

She clenched her fists, that click of the hammer being pushed back by the rough skinned thumb of Vaas's hand snapped her into action.

"Vaas." She shouted as she ran over to him, he glared at her.

"What the fuck do you want?" The sudden irritation fading into nothing when her nimble hand reached up to grab his hanging forearm, she caressed tentatively across the glistening skin, feeling the hairs and bulging veins. He suddenly relaxed, all that anger leaving him, when she looked around she saw the many eyes upon them. That one shanty the old woman was at before... She was dead, laying there at the steps with blood draining from a single hole in her head.

Lunetta wanted to retract herself from him, but she thought up a more logical response in his presence and instead met his gaze. "Stop... She is just a kid." She spoke softly, her voice wavering only slightly, but holding much reason. The hand holding the gun dropped, but instead of holstering the weapon he brought it back up again to where it barely grazed over her chin.

"Nobody bosses me around... You understand?" She didn't understand why, but the reason he stated those words were to make it clear that he never gave anyone as many chances as he had to her. Why?

"Yes. I know." She removed her hand, he gestured towards the girl holstering his weapon.

"Bitch has your necklace." Vaas mumbled before turning and walking towards the exit of the village. She was more confused on why he was about to leave her, he was about to leave her be and she knew him these past few days to never let anything go.

"Wait." She said, he paused in his footsteps, only turning slightly.

"What?"

"Where are you going? Aren't you going to take me back to your compound?"

"Why? Do you want to go back?" He seemed almost like there was more hope; for whatever reason in him for a moment... That was before her answer.

"No." He left, where Lunetta turned her attention to the little girl who was in a complete state of shock and sobs, Lunetta knelt down in front of her, grabbing her shoulders.

"What is your name?"

"Raiza." The girl's face was drenched in tears, she reached into the crop of her dress and pulled out the necklace, Lunetta held her palm out to accept it. How did this little girl get into Vaas's pocket without him knowing?"

"How did you-"

"He wasn't paying attention. He was sitting on the dock and staring out into the water, when I-I took it from him." Lunetta wasn't sure how to react, the girl was brave, and reminded her of herself when she was young. Lunetta glanced back at the dead woman on the ground, before looking to Raiza again. She made a simple smile, lightly swiping the tears that drifted from her eyes with her thumbs.

"Thank you... That was a brave thing you did and I will forever be in your debt." She didn't want to have the little girl know or even hint that there was no reason for her to steal the necklace back. She didn't want her to think that her grandmother's death was all her fault and for no reason. "Do you have any parents?" She shook her head, Lunetta sighed.

"Then I guess you are mine now." Lunetta didn't mind taking this girl under her wing, but there was something deep down inside telling her to take it back, she was using this girl to fill in that hole that was left with Barsul's death. She was a dangerous woman taking an innocent girl into her heart as if they were her child. This girl's life could very well be in danger if Vaas wanted anything to do with Lunetta in the next few days she needed a safe place to keep this girl. "Come on. We are going somewhere else, somewhere safe." She knew that there was no place on the island that was safe, but she also knew she had an appointment with the man in white and if she didn't make it she would very much lose such important information. She brought the girl to the garage, where she hadn't been in days, telling her that she would be back within a few hours and then she left... Into the sunset, knowing that she shouldn't have left the girl alone, she felt guilt, but also more pressing matters needed to be handled. So she was gone, she disappeared.


	17. 16:MrWillis

**Chapter 16: Mr. Willis**

Vaas was in a controlled rage, that is if rage could have been contained he was containing it quite well at the moment. Rage from his ignorance, naivety, stupidity. These were all the things he had blamed himself for. He had just let her go... He had let her boss him around... He had let her slap him and he didn't know why she wouldn't just leave his mind.

His hands gripped the steering wheel with a vice grip, his face stoic as it glared out onto the dirt road. These feelings she gave him, he couldn't explain them. His mother before she died had told him stories about love and loss, he had never thought he would feel that. That pain first came with Citra and now with her. He hated himself for it, his mother, but he couldn't explain why he didn't hate **her**.

He pulled into the shore near the boats, two to be exact and one of which was reading right beside the one they had taken from his mini isle. Benny was sitting down on its edge staring out into the sunset, his back turned to the jeep. That angered him even more... The thought that another man even bothered with his Luna. He wished right then and there that he had never met her, it would save him from this grief. That he would have to let her go or otherwise face the punishment, her death.

 _ **BUT WHY DID IT BOTHER HIM?!**_

Vaas grumbled something incoherent to himself as he approached Benny, who at the sound of his footsteps glanced in his direction.

"Where is Luna?" Vaas placed his hands on his hips and blankly stared out into the sunset. The orange illuminating the masculine features that made up his character.

"She... Um... I let her go." Vaas mumbled, itching his forehead with a short pause to himself.

"Why did you let her go?" Benny asked plainly, Vaas shrugged.

"She didn't seem worth the struggle." Benny snorted even if Vaas wasn't joking.

"She is a pain in the ass, isn't she? I love that about her. She always-"

"That's fucking it punto. You're gonna make me throw the fuck up with that lovey dovey shit. Why are you here?" Vaas snapped out, not wanting to hear how amazing she was, not wanting to hear anything about her.

"It's Hoyt. Says he is coming to the island tomorrow for an inspection on the drug fields and some of the villages around here." Vaas slapped a hand on his forehead and groaned.

"F~Fuck me." Vaas licked his lips, before his hand dropped. "I thought he was here just a couple days ago man. He never comes twice a week."

"Well. He is coming. Thank god Luna is out of the-"

"Shut the fuck up about that bitch. Nobody gives a fuck." Vaas gave a fuck... He for some reason gave a lot of fucks about Lunetta, La Luna de Sangre. Benny put his hands up in defense.

"Alright... Sorry." His eyebrows furrowed a thought came to mind, before quickly being pushed aside. Vaas gestured to the silhouette of the island in the distance, sun sinking behind it.

"We gonna fucking go or what?" Benny nodded, for some reason he felt that Vaas wasn't giving the full picture on why Lunetta wasn't around and it worried him. There was nothing more he could do though, the moon was gone for the month and the sun was dull. The night would be empty for the next week and that scared Benny the most.

* * *

The dirt stuck to her feet and it was five minutes from five where she stood at the location the man in white named off. She was cautious, she didn't trust many people and felt that doing this was a huge mistake on her part. Curious overruled that fear however and she felt the need to know more about the things that had been going on lately. About Hoyt, about how this man supposedly knew everything about her.

She sighed leaning back into a nearby tree and crossing her arms. Her breath stunk, she hadn't had a shower in days, she hadn't slept more than an hour or two in the past week. Lost in her grief, she had failed to realize that she needed to tend to herself to. She determined that after she came for what she needed she would take Raiza down to the river to shower and then go back to the shop and sleep. Not that she would sleep she probably would never sleep like she use to, just crash like a human being would.

She didn't know what she would do after that, she couldn't go to Hoyt and tell him who she was... She despised her own father. She couldn't go to Vaas and kill him. She wasn't strong enough to get her revenge on the Rakyat alone. It really made her think for a moment, a bit more rationally... She didn't nee revenge or family, she had Raiza now and for that she should be thankful.

Deep down however, Lunetta wanted more. She wanted the woman who had assisted in the death of her brother, she wanted the island to be free, but it was never free and it most likely never would be. The snapping of a branch a few feet away shook her from her thoughts, she looked up to come face to face with the man in white.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey." He said.

"I want information."

"I have it for you, but first thing you have to do something for me."

"Name it."

"Kill Vaas." Lunetta nearly choked on her breath, she couldn't imagine why that order was difficult, but it was. It made her chest tighten, her muscles ache more, and that one spot where the knife had been in her dream... Pulse?

"How? He has people around him everyday and he isn't stupid. He can fend for himself." She tried to reason, not only with the man in white, but with herself. Was she willing to risk her life for information? Not that she didn't want Vaas dead, a part of her yelled NO.

"I understand that, but you got in somehow and you got out." He emphasized "you" as if it was an adjective. "That, to me. Tells me that he connects with you somehow. If you can seduce him and get him out of the picture, all the info I have aside from my personal profile will be handed to you in print."

"What information are we exactly talking here?"

"This isn't just some preppy boy stunt sweet heart. I'm talking who your dad is, your inheritance, your fucking brother's real dad, your real brother. This is stuff you need." Lunetta bit her inner cheek, that information appealed to her, but didn't benefit her. Lunetta stepped up from the tree and closed in on the man in white.

"I want info on Citra to, I want a layout of the temple and where she is gonna be three days from now at twelve noon."


	18. 17:Welcome Back

**Chapter 17: Welcome Back**

Vaas's snoring echoed through the warehouse, his body slumped over a wooden desk and his cheek planted into the flat surface over the many papers scattered across it. His arms hung down and if anyone didn't know Vaas, the one thing they could say was that he was exhausted. The issue was whenever he got the chance to close his eyes, the peace would end up being ruined by someone... Particularly Benny, who came running up the stairs of the warehouse to Vaas's office and slammed open the door.

"Vaas!" Vaas shot awake, his hand snapping out the knife that he had held so closely in his sleep, nearly mauling Benny.

"What the fuck-"

"I'm sorry Vaas, but Lunetta's back. She's waiting outside for you." That statement in itself sent Vaas into a state of panic and he didn't know. He knew she was coming back, but he didn't expect that she would be back as soon as a couple hours. He wanted to get ready, put on a shitload of cologne, and spike up his Mohawk. He had no time to do any of those things and cursed himself for even thinking about doing them.

"Uh..." Vaas sheathed his knife and shot up from the chair to rush past Benny, down the stairs, and straight through the two red metal doors. He was running because he didn't know how he was going to react and hoped that some move of impulse would overcome him, when he saw her standing with her back to the warehouse and kneeled down in front of that girl from the village, he was immediately enraged.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He prodded at her as she approached, Lunetta turned and for the first time he thought his eyes were betraying him. She was smiling... And it appeared genuine, Vaas wanted to make her smile more often because it seemed her entire soul glowed when she did. His breath caught, he had never felt this feeling... He hated being a man in that moment and he had **never** hated being a man.

"I came back."

"I see that." Vaas replied bluntly, but for some reason being an asshole didn't feel the same anymore when he was doing it to her. "Why did you come back? Anyone in the right mind would leave this island the moment I gave them the chance."

"Well, I'm not a coward. I want to be here and I want to prove myself." Vaas's eyebrows furrowed and within he faced an internal debate, he wasn't sure if she was joking or not. She wasn't a Joker, but then again she wasn't ever happy it seemed since her brother was dead. Vaas was unsure about whether or not she was trust worthy in these moments. Whether or not she was ever trustworthy. "Please Vaas, I don't want to leave the island and I have no where else to go."

"You should have thought of that before you argued against me." Vaas was about to turn and leave her be, despite wanting for the complete opposite. She stopped him, a gentle hand placed on the shoulder that symbolized all her humanity... What was left of it. When he looked into her eyes, he could see how uncomfortable she appeared, her eyes shifted from left to right and then rested on him, her hand slightly shook, and he would have sworn her bottom lip twitched. He was looking at her lips, he thought they were the greatest thing, but he would never- She stood up on her tippy toes and pressed the soft pillows to his rough ones. His eyes flew open, but suddenly closed and before his hand reached up to her damp hair to deepen the kiss she pulled away, Vaas was unsure if that was her first kiss and he may have kissed many woman, but he sure as hell wished it was his.

His doubt was clouded with pure lust and yet again, he regretted being a man because of her.

"You can stay for a few days..." He whispered and her eyes went down from his, he could see a faint blush on her cheeks, but it was too sudden. And her scent... She smelled better than she did when he was with her earlier. He assumed the damp hair was from washing herself in a river or nearby pond. She looked brighter, especially when she smiled.

He looked around Lunetta and saw the little girl, he rolled his eyes, Vaas was never good with kids. He had never killed one before, even he had rules, but whenever he came across one it was his intention to immediately get rid of the little fucker.

"Is the girl staying to?"

"Yes... She is."

"Where? Where will she be staying?"

"Wherever I am." Vaas was no idiot, he knew something was up. The way he spat out the question was so vile that he would have expected her retaliation, but he saw none of it, she remained quite stoic since the girl was mentioned and that put Vaas on alert.

"Well, I have nowhere for her to go."

"We'll sleep outside on the couches then."

"What about food?"

"Rice and Mangos."

"That's for my men."

"I work for you anyways." Vaas snorted, the debate had paused at this, he stepped closer to her and leaned down so his lips barely grazed her cheek.

"The type of work I have in mind for you Chica... is much more appeasing to my urges than that of what my men do." He whispered so softly, almost beatific in a way. She stepped away from him, crossing her arms, lips opening and closing, but no words leaving them. What was wrong with her? It would bug him eternally, much like how she made him feel... How she unconsciously taunted his mind with her pretty looks and strict persona... But she was different now. Different had plenty of meaning in the jungle.

"I didn't have that work in mind. I came to prove myself again."

"Why?"

"Because I want them all dead and as much as I think I can do it on my own... I know I can't."

"Who is them?"

"You know... Them." He didn't have to know who " **them** " was, " **they** " had stolen everything from him.

"You aren't strong enough, that's your problem."

"I just want revenge." He watched her hand mindlessly reach up to grab the totem that hung from her neck. It belonged there, it symbolized her well... Better than those scars that she bore, mental scars she paraded around in, but without pride and more so sorrow. "I want them all to burn." Vaas didn't understand her, but he knew she meant something for him. Perhaps that ounce of humanity that remained, perhaps that ounce of himself that he missed in his new life.

"I want them all to burn too, I want them to feel the knife..." He stepped forward again, breaking the distance she had hoped would suffice between them, ever since Willis's proposal she had been ever hesitant to do this. To do what she was doing. To do IT. "Slowly enter their charred skin, everyone here has a reason to hate them. Their family was killed, their life's were taken by them, this has happened to all of us." She finally met his gaze and it occurred to him that she was afraid... She had been afraid all along, but was so good at hiding it... Like... "You can't just say all those things and expect them to have an impact. You have to have reason, real reasons, what are your reasons?" He was asking for more than just revenge, he wanted to see her inner monster expose itself to that glimpse of life. The kid, he could handle for a couple of days, the emotion... What he couldn't handle was her? She needed to have a reason for being here. Not revenge.

"I have no reasons. I haven't ever known what my purpose is. But I want to do this, because it makes me feel like i'm an alright person. Like I'm doing something good despite all my greater evils." Vaas gulped, he wasn't religious, but boy did she make him feel that way. She made him feel like the devil. She made him feel like she was the one thing he could never have, an angel.

"God has no place for us in heaven. Doing this, you can't go back." It was fairly similar to what Benny had said to her or at least what she had thought before all of this had occurred. Before she met Vaas. Before her life had changed. This was yet another fork in the road and she had to decide which path was hers. So. She. Did.

"I don't want to go back, I want this."

 **So, in a literary sense Vaas is in fact the devil and Lunetta is the bridge between heaven and hell.** _ **IT**_ **is what Willis is expecting her to be to take down Vaas, meaning she has to choose a side of herself and that is the only way she can kill him.** _ **IT**_ **can also be the monster she has inside of her that is waiting to be released through the enactment of sin.** _ **THEM**_ **is all the bad people in the world that have made them who they are now, particularly the Arakyat in this sense. Lunetta is succumbing to the darker side of herself by doing what she thinks is alright. When she says this in the story and it is in italics, she is pretty much telling Vaas that she is going to kill him. The kiss is a sign of death or some may interpret it as that brisk second before death when good and bad collide as one. This is the overall turning point in the story, this is when you will start to see more of Vaas's inner thoughts on how he reacts to Lunetta being in his life. I don't know why I put literary symbols in this story, if its interesting I will certainly do more.**


	19. 18:Knowledge

**Chapter 18: Knowledge**

Vaas thought more than he had ever thought before as he let Lunetta and her cock-block follower through the warehouse. He didn't know where to keep them, he could throw the kid in one of the many cages that just so happened to be lying around, he could take Lunetta up to his room and rape her. Every bone in his body wanted to do just that, but he needed her willing... It was so much more fun willing.

He had the advantage over either of them if they tried to escape considering his bedroom, which was also his office, was directly across from the room he had given them. It was a smaller room, empty aside from one mattress and a few boxes stacked up. It was a room he planned on giving to Benny, but Benny never accepted so now it was Lunetta's. For the time being, which he didn't mind for some reason at all, in fact he would have preferred she was with him and the kid stay in that room, but that wouldn't happen the way Vaas desired it would.

He opened the door down the hall up from the stairs and gestured inside, she stepped inside and he had waited for her sounds of disapproval, but none were heard and the girl didn't say anything either.

"Dinner is at seven, but the kid stays here, i'll have Benny bring her some Rice."

"If she isn't going then I'm not."

"Do you really want her to be there? In my room? Because that's where dinner is gonna be."

"Why?" Vaas groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Because... I said so, okay?" He growled out, leaving the room to go straight across the hall to his, slamming the door behind him and leaning back into it. What was wrong with him? Vaas of all people was being the most sensitive jerk known to existence. He lifted himself off the door and not even a minute later was it opened to reveal Lunetta glaring at him fiercely.

She closed the door and paused leaning back into it, not even bothering to recognize that she was in Vaas's room. That this was Vaas's home. She did look around, it wasn't a mess as she had expected it to be, with the exception of a few beer bottles, his clothes were folded nicely and stacked up on the oak dresser across from the length of the large king size bed. It was a water bed, sagging down it was barely two feet off the ground. The floor was concrete as was the walls which were cluttered with posters of random things, some naked woman, some animals from the national geographic magazines, and even some ACDC posters. The desk was to the right of the door and a large window resided above it, the shutters closed to give the room a much darker appeal from the light that peeped in from the sun.

"Chica, I don't know what makes you think that this is okay, but I'm really thinking about shooting you." He turned slowly, looking at her with a weak look of exhaustion. He did appear exhausted, more so in the dark, rough circles resided under his eyes, nights of sleeplessness neglecting his handsome features.

"We need to talk now." Vaas stepped back dangerously slow until his calves met the bed and he dropped to sit on its edge. It sagged down under his weight with a sloshy noise sound, he rested his elbows on his knees, crossing his fingers and patiently waiting for her to continue. "There are going to be some rules." Vaas snorted, his eyes traveling the curvature of her body before meeting hers again, strict and serious as they were when he had first met her as they were a couple hours ago.

"I don't think you are in the position to make rules, you are in my warehouse, in my room, have no weapons, no authority, no significance in my life."

"Just shoot me then, I want you to do it, I really do." Vaas hated it when people bested him and instead of fucking her right now, he did want to shoot her... But he also really, really, really wanted to fuck her.

Vaas stood up, taking quick strides over to her and without a word pressed his lips over hers. She struggled only slightly, his hand weaving through her thick hair. She was so tiny compared to him, he lifted her up so her legs wrapped around his waist as though she weighed nothing. The struggling stopped and she began to comply, arms wrapping around his neck holding him tightly.

His hands grabbed her hips and he viciously humped into her, causing her to break from the kiss and gasp.

"Vaas, are you listening?" Vaas blinked his eyes a couple times and shook his head before directing his gaze back on Lunetta, her hands rested on her hips and she was glaring at him fiercely in hopes that he would for once take her seriously.

"I was nice enough to let you stay... In MY HOME!" His tone raised and he stood up, Lunetta's eyes widened as he approached and stopped in front of her. "I want you to fucking respect me... Do you understand?" He grumbled out, she gulped and nodded.

"Here are my rules. You stay the fuck out of my room unless I want you in here, you listen to me and me alone, and the kid stays in the room across the way until we find out what we do with her. Okay?"

"I don't want to let her go."

"Then go find some other place to stay, I am sick of your excessive demands and expectations." Then he saw it, her eyes flickered from his lips and back. She was contemplating, but what exactly? She had never seduced someone before and her last attempt with him was futile, but she learned, didn't she? She kissed him earlier and that swayed his decision in her favor. She assumed that he would do most of the work and she could just go along with it, but he didn't.

She didn't know what this was, he didn't know what this was. What were they doing? What made them want to kill each other, but not at the same time? And Vaas... He wasn't himself, ever since he met her, he wasn't... Vaas and he didn't like it, he hated it. He hated her. But then why couldn't he kill her?

"I'm sorry." He tensed up at those two words, they struck him in a place he didn't know he had. His heart. It wasn't a lie either, it was genuine.

"I want an apology gift, think up what it might be."

"I'm not having sex with you." She bluntly stated, his lips quirked up into a smile and it was almost like he knew.

"Chica... Listen..." She leaned up, her lips just about to touch his before Vaas's name sung through the compound, he groaned and took a step away from her. Benny always ruined Vaas's moments, Vaas didn't care for what she was just about to do and pushed past her, exiting the room. He stood in the hallway, hearing Benny's feet as he frantically ran up the metal stairs.

He looked into the room across the way and saw the girl looking out the window that at least had provided some light, when he looked up, a panting Benny at the top of the stairs came into view, barely catching his breath.

"Hoyt." That's the only word he needed to choke out before Vaas had rapidly rushed himself down the stairs and out of the compound, Lunetta revealed herself from Vaas's room, she had heard the name... The name of her father. At this point she had already met the tyrant, but she hadn't met her father. Benny fell back into the concrete wall of the hall, making an attempt for his breath, he looked up at Lunetta, blinking his eyes repeatedly.

"Are you alright?" He slid down the wall till he was siting with his knees up to his chest.

"Hoyt is here. You should probably..." He sucked in a big gulp of air and released. "Stay in here." Lunetta wanted to accept the offer, but she also wanted to meet her father at a much different angle. She wanted him to see the necklace that she wore and regret ever looking at her like she was some bimbo, he wanted him to regret never looking for her, never going out to bring her mother and her back, to take them away and save them.

She hated Hoyt because of what he did and she still hated him for never being a father, never being the one she needed. She had no one now though and although the idea of loneliness seemed easy in some ways, she needed someone to talk to or hold her. She needed a purpose. Guilty for even considering that Hoyt may offer that, she still wanted to go and see him. She still wanted to look at him from a different mindset and see how it felt to be in the presence of her father.

"No. I'm going." Lunetta looked into the room at Raiza. "Ey." The girl turned to her.

"Stay here, alright? I'll be back with some food." She nodded and went back to looking out the window, Lunetta sighed out her anxiety, but the pressure in her chest did not dissipate. She stepped past Benny, who stared on with a look of awe.

"Hoyt is gonna freaking kill you Lunetta! Are you crazy?!"

"I know what I'm doing Benjamin." She replied at the bottom of the stairs following out the warehouse after Vaas, when she exited the light of the sun nearly blinded her, she held a hand up to cover her eyes from its bleeding rays. The compound was silent and almost rural, seldom the few pirates that always seemed to camp about. She scanned around for any sign of Vaas, she was working off of both eagerness and nervousness alike.

She saw no one and instead ventured further towards the red metal doors exiting the compound as she turned the corner of another concrete warehouse, graffiti marring its walls, she ran straight into a hard body falling back into the dirt. She looked up and it was Vaas, he glared down at her, crossing his arms and being that intimidating figure.

"What the fuck are doing out?"

"We didn't finish our conversation, I still want there to be rules." Lunetta stated as she picked herself up and dusted the dirt off of her body, she looked up at Vaas and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could.

"Vaas! What the bloody hell is taking so long?" Vaas nonchalantly looked over his shoulder before looking back to Lunetta and grinning.

"You are my fiancé, we have been engaged for two weeks, agreed?" He suggested, it was a cover to keep her safe, she needed safety from Hoyt, through his eyes there was no knowledge of a father/daughter relationship, only the man named Hoyt who would most likely kill her without regrets.

"I'm not going to-"

"Five, Four, Three-"

"Okay, okay!" Hoyt stepped up alongside Vaas and gave Lunetta one look.

"I thought you were supposed to be dead by now." He said without shock on his expression.

Lunetta's breath caught, she froze and looked up into Hoyt's eyes. She felt Vaas's hand grab hers and weave their fingers tightly together. She didn't care though, it seemed like the entire world stopped and the reality that the man before her was her father was difficult to register. She had his tan skin and dark eyes, she might have even had his stubbornness and resilience. He didn't see it though, he didn't see her as anymore than a common whore and suddenly Lunetta felt exposed.

She wanted to hide that necklace away, she didn't want him to know anymore, she didn't feel safe with the man that once was his mother's lover.

"Hoyt, this is my fiancé, Lun-"

"Lunetta, you must have accepted my advice to drop your panties."

"What?" Vaas released her hand crossing his arms and looking back and forth between them. "You two have met before?"

"Yes. Back a couple days ago actually, I thought you would be dead by now. I'm not going to lie, I am surprised." His eyes went down further and she snatched her hand up to grab the totem of the necklace, sliding it into her shirt.

"Well... Um... I'm a lot stronger than you think." Vaas's face contorted in utter puzzlement, he truly thought this woman was an enigma, he glanced up at Hoyt.

"Excuse me Boss, just a moment." Hoyt snorted, he couldn't make a smart remark, Vaas had already pulled Lunetta away until they were around the corner of the warehouse. He pushed her into the concrete wall and instead of pinning her to it, he placed his hands on either side of her head and looked into her eyes.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What are you talking about?" She scoffed, he rolled his eyes.

"You are hiding something from me. Tell me now..." He pulled his knife out and this time, he knew he could do it. He brought it to her neck, it's sharpness threatening to slit her throat. "Or I will kill you."

"Remember that old woman?"

"Yes and your fucking mother's necklace, why?"

"She told me who my father was..." The knife started slowly dropping from her neck. "Hoyt."

...

...

...

...

"Shit."


	20. 19:Respect

**Chapter 19: Respect**

"Why the fuck didn't you tell me this earlier, huh?"

"It was none of your business." She argued and she argued a good point, Vaas hated losing though and he wasn't going to have it. He slapped his hand against the concrete wall near her head.

"None of my business?!" A short cough drew the two from their argument looking to the corner they had just turned from they saw Hoyt leaning against the edge and staring with a look of strictness on his face.

"Is something wrong?"

"No." They both said in unison, Vaas snarled and pushed Lunetta back into the wall with one hand while hiding the knife with the other. She grunted and rubbed her arm in annoyance when she went to stand fully beside him yet again. It was still hard to look Hoyt in the eyes so she reasoned with the ground.

"I hope my arrival hasn't interrupted anything."

"Not at all, Boss. You are welcome here anytime." Vaas feigned a smile, the knife still grasped tightly behind his back.

"So Lunetta is her first name. What's her full name?" Vaas sheathed his knife without Hoyt noticing, a fake smile still plastered on his lips.

"My full name is Lunetta Oshima Rodrigo."

"Soon to be Montenegro of course." Vaas finished sternly, Lunetta bit her bottom lip and looked away, the idea of ever marrying him was horrifying. It might have been a scam to keep Hoyt off of her, but she would never want to marry the stingy pirate lord, much less anyone for that matter.

"Really? I never thought you would consider settling down."

"Well you know me-"

"I do." Hoyt interrupted. "And knowing you, you would never ever settle down." Vaas frowned and shrugged, wrapping an arm around Lunetta.

"Even monsters find love." He rasped out, his intimidation and ego shrinking under Hoyt's authority.

"Hmm... I suppose." Hoyt's eyes distantly stared off into the ground for a moment, before he shook it off. "Well I am happy for you both, when is the wedding?"

"A month, maybe two, we haven't decided yet."

"Hopefully this relationship of yours doesn't interfere with the business, I know how that can be." Lunetta turned away and as if she hadn't known Vaas was there the entire time. She turned into Vaas's chest in which he took that as a sign to tighten his arm around her.

"W..." Vaas cleared his throat. "Why don't you go get the kid and we'll have lunch out here with Hoyt?"

"Kid? Vaas did you-"

"No, no, no, no. Not me! Never me. The rat we found in Badtown." Lunetta, who had for some reason been comfortable for those few seconds pushed him away, he stumbled back slightly, his jaw tightened and he shot her a vengeful look.

"She isn't a rat!" Lunetta retorted before stomping off towards the other warehouse to recover the child and Benny, when she entered the warehouse, she could hear the faint noises of giggling. She walked up the stairs slowly, careful not to make any noise. When she came upon the once empty room, she could see Benny and Raiza sitting next to each other on the floor laughing and having conversation with one another. She didn't know how to react, she stood at the door and leaned against the frame.

"So, like I said. Vaas isn't that bad of a guy, if you want to get on his good side you have to listen to orders and not get in his way."

"What if I get in his way?"

"I'm sure he can be reasoned with-"

"You both are wanted." Lunetta interrupted, she didn't want Raiza ever getting the idea that Vaas was reasonable. Vaas was the most irrational person ever known to man, she didn't want her anywhere near him. They both looked up from their seats on the empty floor.

"Hoyt wants to talk to us?"

"No, I just want Raiza, you can take care of yourself." Raiza stood up and brushed the dirt off her dress to walk over to Lunetta and take her hand, without saying anything she guided the little girl from the room and down the stairs.

"Whatever you see or hear... Don't pay attention to it because it's most likely going to be wrong."She nodded her head quietly.

"But Benny is a good person."

"I know he is, he just isn't a good influence is all." Lunetta replied, suddenly feeling guilty for mentally abusing Benny the way she had recently. He had helped her, he had always been a good friend, but he had also led her down the wrong path, a deadly path.

"Luna!" Benny shouted as he exited the room and ran down the stairs to meet her at the bottom. She turned to face him and he smiled lightly. He held up a pair of keys in his hand and offered them to her. "Your car is still in mint condition." She felt a warmth inside her at his smile, she couldn't be angry at him forever. She shook her head and pushed the keys back to him.

"Thanks Benny, just take care of it a little longer for me." He shrugged and waved a hand at her.

"It's alright, you are capable of taking care of yourself." He said smugly before pushing past Lunetta and Raiza to jog down the stairs and leave the warehouse.

"He's a nice man."

"Yeah... I know."

It was odd how lunch had began. It was that Vaas, Benny, Hoyt, Raiza, and Lunetta all sat at the red couches, Hoyt didn't eat and neither did Benny, but Vaas and Raiza had a bowl of rice, and Lunetta a peach. It was mostly silent while everyone ate. Benny sat beside Vaas and Hoyt stood pacing back and forth. Raiza sitting on Lunetta's lap on the couch across from them.

"So..." Vaas began, shoving a spoonful of rice into his mouth and obnoxiously chopping on it with an open mouth. "Luna, why don't you tell Hoyt about the information you have chosen to withhold from me?"

"What information?" Lunetta innocently chimed, taking another bite of the peach, Hoyt awkwardly angled his head to face her and cocked it to the side.

"Information?"

"Yes, Lunetta has some valuable information. Don't you?" Vaas grinned in an ugly fashion and continues to chew with his mouth open.

"I'm interested to hear exactly what information you have for me."

"It's nothing." Lunetta shoved it to the side, if she told him, it could ruin any chances she had at getting more info on Citra.

"Nothing?" Vaas sat up so his elbows leaned onto his knees. He dropped the bowl down into the dirt, not caring when it's contents spattered all over, he strictly glared at Lunetta. "It better not be nothing, you are lucky I forgot about your little man in white before I let you go, otherwise I would have made you bring me to him."

"A man in white? How interesting." Hoyt sarcastically implied, Lunetta took another bite from her peach. "I have gotten reports from my men that there was an American in Bad Town. What would you know about him?"

"Nothing. He was just a friend before..." Lunetta was never good at lying and Vaas could read right through her.

"Before what?"

"Before he killed my father." She blurted out, taking another nervous bite of her peach, Vaas burst out into laughter and she could do nothing, but glare at him.

"And who exactly is your father?"

"Luna I thought your father left you when you were young?" Benny questioned with a confused expression, Vaas kicked him in the calf, shutting Benny up quickly.

"Are you trying to lie to me Luna?" Hoyt asked in a soft tone, but everyone knew that tone meant aggravation and hatred.

"N-No... I just..." She gently picked Raiza up off her lap and instead put her on the empty seat beside her. "Whatever I have to say, isn't important." She gulped avoiding Hoyt's eyes. "Vaas? Can I talk to you for a second." Vaas stood up without hesitation and followed Lunetta away from the group until they were far enough away for her standards.

"I don't want him to know." She whispered to him, close enough to barely touch his chest, she was about to step away before his hand placed itself at her lower back and she was held in place. Her eyes glazed back over to the group in the distance and all except Raiza were staring, she looked back up at Vaas.

"I know you don't, but he will eventually find out and when he does, he won't be happy."

"If I'm his daughter, you think he'd be a little more respectful."

"How can he be respectful-" She shushed him and he cleared his throat. "When..." He spoke in a gentler whisper. "You haven't even fucking told him."

"I don't want to."

"Then it's your problem, he needs to know and if you don't tell him before he leaves tomorrow. I will."

"NO." She nearly yelled out, but he held a hand over her mouth. "No." She whispered out again.

"He doesn't like us when we keep strolling off and ignoring him like this, he likes to know things and when he doesn't know it gets brutal."

"Well I don't know what you expect me to do." Vaas reached up with his other hand and grabbed the string around her neck, pulling it until the totem came up from beneath her shirt and rested over it. She for that one moment in life felt respect for this man. Not because of what he did, but because of what he could do... He could be so nice, but only when he wanted to.

"Tell him." Lunetta held the necklace tightly in her palm, to afraid to let it go, they both walked back over to the couches and sat back down. Raiza snuggling into Lunetta's warmth as a show of safety and the feeling of protection.

"So, what was our little talk about?" Hoyt teased in a mocking manner, shoving his hands into his pockets and approaching Lunetta. She panicked and grabbed the totem of the necklace shoving it back into her shirt, Vaas shook his head, Hoyt stopping directly in front of Lunetta's seat.

"I don't know anything about the man in white, I am sorry." For a second, Hoyt's visage and coolness evaporated and you could see his anger, but he quickly pushed it aside with a crooked smile.

"Alright then. I'll take your word for it. Tonight Vaas is having a party... You'll be there?"

"Of course, we are engaged Hoyt."

"Enga-" Vaas slapped a hand over Benny's mouth and muffled his surprise.

"Good. I would hate for you to miss out on the fun Lunetta." There was so much mystery in his voice that Lunetta suddenly felt unsafe. Her father didn't know who she was and he wanted her dead.


	21. 20:First Love

**Chapter 20: First Love**

Raiza was asleep on one the dirty mattresses in the room, but she didn't seem to mind, Lunetta was hesitant to leave her and allow anyone that slim chance of hurting her, she couldn't... She had failed Barsul and she couldn't fail Raiza, but Vaas wanted her out there. There was no more light outside aside from the moon and guard lights that surrounded the compound walls.

When Lunetta left the warehouse to go outside, the entire compound was alive, Pirates throughout the entire island had come to the compound this night. Couches were full, strippers took the stage, some standing around with men, while villagers who had just decided to show up stood around talking to one another. The music boomed loud from one of the open garages and it gave an echoed sense throughout the compound as men and women dancing against one another near the large bonfire that was at the center to the ravenous music and drink.

She let her eyes scan the crowd for Hoyt, Vaas, or Benny, but found none of them. She sighed, taking a moment to contemplate whether or not she should go into the crowd alone or go back into the warehouse, her decision was made when she was startled by a body closing in from behind her.

"Have you ever partied before?" Vaas sounded sleepy and looked exhausted, she looked over cautiously as he approached, one open beer in his left hand, a closed one in the other. She wondered if he had been waiting for her to leave the warehouse this entire time and had taken those few hours while she was with Raiza to wait. He offered it to her, the beer, but she quietly shook her head. "Come on, you got to live a little." She had never had alcohol before, but living on this island knew it would somehow find her. She took it from him to silence his persuading and they stood their for a moment, Vaas sipping at his beer as he overlooked the party from in front of his warehouse.

"Raiza is asleep." She said randomly, thinking back to the safety of the young girl sleeping on the nasty mattress in the warehouse, but Vaas didn't hear her worry.

"That's good, you need to be care free for a little bit, relax. Huh?" He was right, she needed to let go with no worries. But she also needed to focus on her mission, when she accomplished what she needed to... Only then can she be carefree.

"Agreed." She feigned a smile, he noticed the change in her personality and took note of it, he knew she was here for trouble and he decided to use that in his favor. He watched her make a flimsy attempt at opening the bottle, but couldn't unscrew the cap.

"Let me." He had her hold his beer as he made an attempt to open it, muscles tightening and straining till it gave and they made their exchange again. He patiently waited for her to take her first sip, she merely looked at it. There was a reason she didn't drink, it was a strong habit of her false father when she was younger and she knew its effect on the human body, to be honest she was about to pour it's liquid contents out into the dirt. Vaas wasn't going to allow that though, he needed to her drunk and weak, this way he could take advantage of her. This wasn't his first thought however, upon watching her leave the compound he felt the need to just let her be and stalk her through the night, but that changed when he realized he had even considered letting a pretty woman like Lunetta 'be'. "Go ahead. It's your first step at becoming a true fucking woman." He sipped from his beer and nearly choked at the look she gave him. It was a desperate look, that didn't so much amuse him, but frightened him and very few things could do that.

"I don't know Vaas, I don't want to do this." She stated with unease.

"Come on. Try it, I promise, it will be worth it." She bit her bottom lip and stared at the brown bottle of liquid, then looked skeptically up at him again.

"I'm not leaving until you have a sip."

"Alright, alright." She lifted the bottle to her lips and tilted it till the liquid met her lips and she swallowed it briskly before coughing it up and spitting it out. It was sour and spicy to her taste buds, just a bit so that her body couldn't handle it, Vaas chuckled, taking a sip of his drink.

"You're a pussy." He stated, she felt her lips quirk up and instead of yelling at him like she should have, she playfully shoved him. He stumbled back, but his smile grew wider.

"I can handle it." She retorted, her expression reverting back to stoic again.

"Then I guess you can handle drinking the rest of that and another after." She paused to look up at him with furrowed eyebrows, she knew what alcohol did to someone who wasn't used to it and she could see his game. She for some reason... Felt like playing and with an unreasonable decision making mindset at the moment, she thought her, someone who had just had their first taste of alcohol, could handle a couple more sips and maybe even another bottle. She wanted to prove him wrong and wipe that smirk off his face.

"Okay, I can do that."

"Really? You're sure you can handle that for the night?!"

"I'm positive." She replied with utter confidence and she smiled at him in an endearing way, she for a split second lost all worry and pain, but it came back very quickly and she removed her smile.

"Then if you can do that, you can also dance with me, right?" He asked smugly, taking a long sip of his beer after asking, practically chugging it down.

"I..." She remembered her mission and thought of this as the perfect way to seduce Vaas, but she wasn't as good at seducing as woman who were more experienced and she needed to try harder. She needed to be better, she saw how the woman in the crowd danced with their partners, perhaps with a little effort she could do the same. She kept reminding herself she was only doing this because she needed to get him to trust her so she could kill him. But, then there was also the question of how she was going to kill him and could she?She couldn't think about that now, she nibbled on her bottom lip in deep thought, before taking another mindless sip of the beer. "Sure." He nodded, dropping the now empty beer lazily from his lips and letting it fall to the ground with a clash.

"Was that really necessary?"

"All in the name of sex." She squawked when he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up onto his shoulder carrying her towards the crowd, she dropped the beer at some point, having struggled to get out of his grasp she eventually gave up. She didn't know what his previous statement had meant, but somehow she had to hope that it was the alcohol getting to him. The crowd made way for him as he pushed past them and then finally dropped Lunetta onto her feet. In a fit of anger she hit a fist at his chest, he grunted, but continued to smile at her.

She nervously eyed the crowd surrounding them, as before it only consisted of sweaty bodies meeting sweaty bodies, moving along to the native song.

"You don't know how to dance." He stated, her eyes met his again and his arm slowly wrapped around her waist to bring her roughly against his chest. Her hands came up to push him away, but his lips were at her ear and shivers crept down her spine at his heated breath. "Let me show you... Let go Luna... Let the world take you into the darkness of things." He began to sway with her, against her, around her.

His arm remained around her waist and suddenly she felt herself move with the music, their bodies rubbing against one another in song and she wanted to let go. She wanted to let go so bad, but it all came at her in a hurl of stress. She couldn't let go, the grim face of her brother at his final resting place had haunted her to such an extent that she couldn't let go.

She leaned into Vaas's chest, he was the only human being nearest to her that she sought comfort from. She wrapped her arms around his neck and dug her head under his chin and began to sob. Vaas stopped dancing against her and instead grabbed her shoulders to pull her away and stare her in the eyes. Shortly after recognizing her tears that glittered in the moonlight he grabbed her again and pulled her to his chest much more fiercely. One hand wove through her hair while the other wrapped around her waist and all she did was cry.

"Shhh..." She wanted to stop and ask what suddenly made him so kind, kind enough to hold her and comfort her. She could feel and hear his thundering heart in his chest, smell his scent and breathe his breath. He was human and that was what made her regret ever considering killing him, he may have been cruel and short-tempered, but he was human. He might have killed and took drugs, but he was human and she had no heart to kill another human regardless of their actions. Barsul would never kill a human and here she was thinking she could kill his murderers without a single bit of regret. She had to come to terms with herself... She was human and unlike some humans, she couldn't kill another human being. That didn't mean she didn't have it in her, it meant that this entire time she was willing to lose her humanity to kill another human being... A human being that wasn't kind and deserved to die, she was willing to sacrifice herself to take that morsel of evil from the world and that is what made her stop sobbing. She couldn't seduce him now, she couldn't kill him yet, she needed to wait for that perfect moment.

She pulled away from Vaas and wiped those few stray tears away from her cheeks, he was about to pull her into another embrace, but she stopped him.

"I can't do this. I think... I should just go to bed."

"I can't let you do that though, Hoyt is expecting to see you tonight." Vaas gruffly began, crossing his arms and feeling unfortunate that his reminder might not be enough to keep her from leaving him.

"Then he won't be seeing me." She stomped through the crowd without listening to Vaas's response. He went bounding after her and when she broke the surface of the perspired mob, she continued her hard footsteps towards the warehouse. Vaas ran after her angrily, he stopped in front of her and grabbed her shoulders.

"Why do you do this, huh?!" He yelled in her face, he barely knew her, but to both of them it seemed like they had known each other forever. "We were doing fine until you started to fucking cry and for a moment I thought I could fucking help you, but NO! Now you are fucking tired all of a sudden? I don't fucking think so." He pushed her back, releasing her from his grip. "You are worthless. You are so worthless to think that I am willing to allow you, a fucking woman, as an equal amongst MY men." He hit his chest, he always seemed to gesture his anger when he was beyond the point of incense. Her fists clenched and she felt that thriving spirit to fight back, despite not wanting anything to do with this a moment ago.

"Who cares if I cry?! I have my reasons! I can fight any one of your men and win! You and your men are pathetic compared to me!" Luckily no one was close enough to care what the argument was about, otherwise they would have had an audience and Vaas wouldn't have let her insult slide by without physical and painful punishment.

"You take that back..." He grumbled in a dangerously low tone, he took one stride to break the distance between them and she would have sworn his eyes were red with rage and his nose was exhaling the fumes of his intense emotion. His face was wrinkled in the light that shone in their direction and he was close enough for her to feel his breath gliding over her skin.

"No. You called me worthless, if we are being truthful here I don't think you even deserve your goddamned rank!" He was closer now, his chest meeting hers.

"Take it back." He whispered, she rolled her eyes.

"You don't think I'm angry to?"

"Your anger isn't as important as mine. Do you understand? I'm the leader around here!"

"Then why do you keep me around?"

"You are the FUCKING one that came back. I let you go!" He yelled into her face, voice loud enough to break her ear drums. She pushed him away, it was true that she came back, but he could never know why otherwise that feeling of betrayal would consume him and he would gladly kill her. She then said it. He was handsome, she admitted, and strong, and witty, and charming, and pretty much the man she dreamt about. But that life was not for her, she couldn't marry or be a mother, and those things required a love that she did not have or desire.

"You are such a dick. Maybe I would like you if you weren't so cruel. Not that you would care because you don't care about anything." She went to move past him again, but he grabbed her wrist and yanked her back to him.

"So you would fuck me if I wasn't such a dick all the time?" She hid how anxious she was whenever he mentioned them being in the same bed together and averted her eyes. His voice abruptly softened and this put Lunetta on high alert. "How am I a dick to you?" His face hardened, but in a puzzled manner, her eyes squinted at this. Why would he care how she felt about him? Was it because she said she might like him if he wasn't a dick? Did he really think that meant sex? Or was he just playing her? To see how far she would go, to make her think he actually had a heart.

"All you think about is what's between your legs and how it fits with what's between mine. You don't respect me like an individual and allow me my own decisions. You say that I'm weaker than your men and you don't offer me the chance to prove myself. And lastly, you put me in positions I don't want to be in." He was silent, his grip on her wrist slowly releasing itself, he finally let her wrist go. He could never understand woman, she was the one that came back after he let her go. Why did she come back? He didn't care, at this point all he needed was her utter forgiveness.

"Well... I'm... Uh..." He reached a hand up to itch the back of his head. "Sorry." He mumbled those last words in a dull whisper that could barely be heard. She never thought he being the way he is, would be able to apologize.

"You are what?" She wanted to hear him say it again, just to see if he would. He lowered his head down to her ear.

"I'm sorry." He whispered again and she couldn't believe that she was actually blushing. She felt bad for him because in that one sentence altogether she could feel his pain and his loneliness. She knew she shouldn't feel pity for a man that kills his own kind without mercy, but she did. She was gradually growing emotionally closer to the insane pirate lord without really noticing it.

"I'm sorry too." She blurted out, a hint of a smile formed on his lips. And in a genuine need to feel something she hadn't felt emotionally ever in her life. She leaned into his smile and kissed him, it was far more electrifying than ever before. She had never felt so heightened.

She pulled her lips from his and breathlessly remained at a short distance away from his lips.

"I'm sorry again." She whispered, hating herself for being so stupid. This night, nor this mission was supposed to be in her favor. She didn't know what drew her to him other than the things she had admitted to herself before.

"Don't apologize for taking what you wanted."

"Can I take it again?" And she didn't wait for his reply to press her lips against his in a much more heated manner, it left them both breathless and him wanton. He leaned his forehead into hers and pushed his lips down for more, hers slowly leaning away in almost an unintentionally teasing manner. Her back was now arched, his hands holding the curve of it and keeping her closer to him. Her hands rested on his chest flatly, gently pinching at the fabric of his tank top.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Vaas groaned at the familiar voice and was unhappy to find that Lunetta had pulled away. They both looked over at Hoyt who was standing not far from them, he was holding a cigar between his fingers hovering the filter over his lips. "I was wondering if either of you were interested in playing a nice, fair game of Poker." He took another drag of his cigar, the smoke flowing from his lips when the blunt was pulled away.

"Yeah, we can play. How much?"

"The bets are starting out at fifty." Hoyt replied, glaring at Lunetta the entire time in a thoughtful wake. She felt uncomfortable and in mistake moved closer to Vaas again, it worked out however considering they still had to work under the facade of drunken lovers. Vaas reached into his front pocket and pulled out a wad of hundreds, he looked over his shoulder at Lunetta.

"I've never played Poker before." She admitted, it was to him like a first date. After the recent events, Vaas made it his goal to make Lunetta his girlfriend. He had never worked for a woman before and in this case, he felt quite proud that he had gotten far enough for her to kiss him so passionately. He wanted her to be his.

"There is a first time for everything." He held his hand out to her and for the first time... She willingly took it.

* * *

 **Explanation: Lunetta is feeling conflicted with herself on whether or not she can really go through with her mission for Willis, but also the taking of her revenge on Citra. She doesn't condone what Vaas does, but sees that nice side of him that shows so rarely, if that even is his nice side. She knows if she goes through with killing Vaas and getting the information that will assist her in killing Citra and destroying the Arakyat, she won't feel any better with herself than she does now. She will lose her humanity, something Vaas has nearly lost (He has small shows of benevolence, but rarely) and something her father shows nothing of (He could care less for anyone's well being and has lost all traces of companionship). She is at limbo with her emotions and her decisions right now, what she does will be further revealed in later chapters.**


	22. 21:Identify

**Chapter 21: Identify**

The Poker game took place in a basement, the stairs leading down to it were dark and humid. The music outside was muffled to a dull phaser like beat. A singular bulb hung above the wooden table where it took place. Five chairs, two of which were already taken, the others were reserved for Hoyt, Vaas, and Lunetta. When Lunetta made it to the bottom of the stairs, her eyes widened and she stopped, she grabbed Vaas's arm to stop him as Hoyt continued towards his seat.

"What?" She took a deep breath.

"It's him." Vaas place his eyes back on the table.

"Who?"

"It's Buck." He was sitting beside Hoyt, in which they began a conversation to one another in a whisper. Vaas's muscle tightened beneath her fingertips and he shrugged.

"He can't do anything while I am here." She had to admit, she felt safer with Vaas around and Buck in the room.

"I hate him." She muttered with a hitched breath, she glared at Vaas when he made a small snort. Forcefully wrapping his arm around her neck and pulling her to his chest, he dragged her towards the table and she sat down in her seat hesitantly.

"Ah, what a surprise? The Sheila and the pirate, am I invited to the wedding?" Vaas feigned a chuckle, but Lunetta remained silent. Random chips sat around, having not been given to their owners yet.

"I don't know. Luna wanted it to be sort of quiet."

"Well you have to at least invite a few people." Hoyt continued. "Otherwise you won't have any witnesses."

"We have Carlos, speaking of which, where is that motherfucker?" Hoyt shrugged.

"I guess he felt unwanted, considering that Lunetta is sitting in his seat and has taken his place." Lunetta felt slightly guilty, Benny was a good man, but this entire time she had been misusing him.

"No one can take Benny's place, he is one of a kind." Lunetta protested, Vaas smiled slightly and nodded his head in agreement. It was silent as the men exchanged the money, it was placed into the center and the chips were sorted out. Vaas pushed half of the large set of chips on his side over to Lunetta's. She fearfully looked up at him and he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's easy, don't show them what you're thinking, don't let them see your cards. The object of the game is to bet that the cards you have are better than theirs, don't bet if it's a crappy pair and fold instead. Alright?" She didn't understand anything he said other than, "don't show them what you're thinking" and "bet that the cards you have are better than theirs". She nodded her head aimlessly and Hoyt started to deal the cards, when she got hers she took a peak and found that one was an ace of spades and the other a three of clubs. She didn't know what that meant, then suddenly everyone was looking at her. Buck was glaring across the table as was Hoyt, Vaas was simply stating. She tuned out of her thoughts and sighed, Vaas wasn't patient and grabbed a chip throwing it into the pot. She leaned closer to him, till she was at his ear.

"What was that?" She whispered, hoping the others wouldn't hear, but they did. Vaas rolled his eyes and slapped his cards down, wrapping a hand around her chips and pulling them in towards his pile.

"You can just play with me."

"I think that would be the better option Vaas, she isn't intelligent enough to even know what is going on." That was when Lunetta snapped and as said before when she snapped she snapped out of impulse and all rationality was out the window. She slammed her hands down on the table.

"Well you know what?! This girl that you are calling an idiot is your fucking daughter and I think I deserve some fucking respect." She grabbed the necklace and ripped it from her neck, throwing it onto the table. Hoyt's eyes widened, she scowled at him. "I don't know why I even fucking bother with you. You are just another fucking asshole, just like the little fucker sitting beside you." She pointed at Buck and took a deep breath, closing her eyes, hands flat against the table. It was drop dead silent, nobody was expecting that, not even Vaas and all Lunetta could think was of her Mother.

She stepped away from the table, not daring to give anyone eye contact, she left the room. Going up the stairs and leaving the basement, she stepped out into the center of the compound and stood there looking around. She didn't know what o do with herself and suddenly regretted throwing her mother's necklace at the one man who didn't deserve it. She crossed her arms and looked up into the night sky, it's beauty outweighing anything else she felt at the moment. A small tear cascaded down her cheek and she sniffled wiping it away.

She watched as the others around her enjoyed themselves, before feeling a pair of strong arms wrap around her body. His gruff chin rested in her shoulder, stubbles of hair scraping against the skin of her cheek. She wanted to push him away, struggle even, but knew it wasn't worth it. She just told her father who she really was... She should be sobbing and screaming, not that she didn't want to, it's that she couldn't. She lacked the emotion to do so, all of it was anger and sorrow, but she just couldn't. It was odd that someone couldn't show their emotions when they needed to the most, when they felt them the most.

"Have you gone crazy on me?" She snorted before shaking her head and turning away from his stubble. "I have to admit that was the sexiest thing I ever seen in my life. I don't think that I have ever heard you say so many bad words in one sentence before."

"I'm angry." She huffed out, he chuckled in her ear, nibbling at it gently.

"Then this is the perfect time, no? Remember when I told you about sweet, hot rage sex. I have never had it before and I want you to be my first." She finally shoved him away with her elbow and glared at him. She didn't have to say anything for him to get the notion that it wasn't going to happen. But that didn't keep him from wanting and Vaas always got what he wanted eventually.

"Your papa, he didn't really react when you left. He just stared at the necklace, started fiddling with it. He's still just sitting there." She rolled her eyes and tried to contain the little ounce of sanity she had left.

"I don't care. He doesn't care about me and he never will. I've learned and have known for a long time that family doesn't do anything for you." When she said this, she meant it in its entirety, Barsul's death made her grieve, her false father was an alcoholic, her real father who she hadn't seen in years is a drug dealer... She had no one left, her mother was dead, her brother too, and her father didn't care. She didn't want a family anymore, she didn't want to care about anything or anyone, but somehow her soul just couldn't do that.

"I know how you feel." Vaas placed a hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it away, he frowned. He thought that the night had gone quite well, despite her outburst. He thought he was gonna get laid and finally win over the attentions of the woman before him. It didn't matter to him thought, either way he would get it, even with brutal force. "You know, my sister she-"

"Vaas..." A voice interrupted from behind home, Lunetta was about to walk away, but Vaas quickly caught her in his arms. Hoyt walked up slowly, cautiously, his face was blank and in his one hand he held the necklace. She flailed around in Vaas's arms desperately trying to break free from this horrible life she was living, she didn't want to believe anymore that the man before her was her father. When Hoyt came just close enough, she froze, breathing heavily, Vaas's arms still wrapped around her she hid her face in his chest. "Let me see you, Lunetta." His voice was horse and solemn, she didn't turn around. He reached his free hand out and grabbed her shoulder, looking up at Vaas so that he may spin her around. Vaas did just that, still holding her firmly against his chest, his arms around her thin waist, her hands grabbing his forearms. Her nails dug into his skin, Vaas biting his lips to not fuss about it. She kept her head down, eyes averted from Hoyt. Hoyt's hand grabbed her chin and lifted it slightly, her eyes met his and for the first time he looked at her like a human being. His fingers drifted up along the edge of her jaw line and he took in every feature he hadn't before. "You look just like your mother." Vaas slowly removed his arms from around her, but remained behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. "I'm sorry... I put you thr-"

"It's too late, my mother has been dead for years now and I have been alone to care for myself, I never needed you." Her words came out in short breathes, whimpers possibly, he dropped his hand and sighed.

"I don't know what else you want me to say. If I had known-"

"If you had known you wouldn't have done shit." She spat out the last word, Vaas tightened his grip on her shoulders, then suddenly Hoyt smiled and as though nothing had happened he was his smug self again. He was hiding the painful truth that she had spoken, he wasn't there for her and if he had known he wouldn't done much.

"I say we put this aside, let the past be the past..."

"Vaas let me go." She growled out, Vaas didn't move his hands.

"You can work under me with Vaas and the two of you can get married and..."

"Vaas." She repeated, much more emphatic this time, Vaas released her shoulders and as Hoyt continued talking she walked away. He silenced himself, watching as she made her way towards the warehouse. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let his head done.

"Do you really want to marry my daughter?" Vaas stared at Lunetta before she disappeared into the warehouse and he smiled.

"Correction. I _**will**_ marry your daughter."


	23. 22:Night and Day

**Chapter 22: Night and Day**

Lunetta was exhausted, she was so tired that she actually slept when she made it the warehouse. She went upstairs, wrapped Raiza in her arms and went to sleep. It wasn't a sound sleep, but it was much needed sleep that she gladly obtained. When she woke up the day was still young, the sun had barely peaked over the island and into her face and everything seemed to be still. She couldn't help, but crack a smile, the memory however of the night before didn't supply such a thing.

"Good Morning." She expected it to be Vaas, but the accent was too weak. She looked over and saw it was Benny, he was sitting on the floor next to the matress across from the door with his knees bent and his arms hanging by the elbows. His eyes were like crescents and his hands were covered in dirt and dry mud. She could tell he didn't get as good of a sleep last night as she had and it made her wonder. She hadn't seen him at all last night, she carefully moved away from Raiza and slowly sat up.

"Hey." She greeted, he nodded his head towards her.

"Hi... Did you sleep good?"

"Like a baby." She stood up and stalked over to stand beside him, then sat down against the wall and slid down they were at the same level.

"Where were you? Last night I mean." He shrugged, obviously not wanting to say, she took a deep breath and opened her mouth to say something.

"Are Vaas and you really getting married?" He asked randomly, she looked up at him and could see how sick it made him to ask the question. She knew he liked her, but she don't think anything of it until now. "Are you?" He repeated, she shook her head and he let out a sigh of relief.

"He did it so that Hoyt wouldn't hurt me."

"Why would he care?" Lunetta wanted to say she agreed with him on that, but these few days she has realized that there were two sides to Vaas. She wasn't sure why he cared and she honestly didn't care to know why, for all she knew it could have been because of sex.

"I don't know."

"I was scared." He blurted out in a whirl of words, she glanced up at him and squinted her eyes in quandary.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to lose you."

"Lose me?" His hand grasped hers and he softly rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

"I love you." Did he say that before? She might or might not have remembered him saying that. Was it in her dream? "Vaas is abusive and violent, I don't want him to hurt you." She wasn't one for romantic moments, but that must had been the sweetest thing she had ever heard. She wasn't in love with Vaas or at least she don't think she was. She never knew the type of love that Benny was referring to, but it was cute and sweet and Benny was a good guy. He definitely wasn't like Vaas and in some cases he had helped her.

"Will you answer me?" He asked softly, she bit her bottom lip and reacted in the only way she knew how. She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, but it wasn't like the kiss that she shared with Vaas. It was different, this kiss seemed dull, but much more gentle and smooth. Benny deepened the kiss expecting her to reciprocate his emotions, she sunk into his lips and parted them, allowing his tongue between their softness. Her hand reached up to cup his cheek and pull him surprisingly closer.

The door swung open and they both pulled away, Lunetta looked towards the door and saw Vaas standing there... In his hand was a bunch of purple lilacs. His smile dropped very quickly, his eyes darkened and his chest started to heave.

"Listen Vaas-"

"Shut the fuck up!" He interrupted her waking Raiza, Vaas dropped the flowers and stomped on them. He walked over to Benny, who had no means to protect himself. He grabbed Benny by the hair and pulled him up to his feet. "Vaas, dude?!" Vaas yanked Benny out of the room, Lunetta ran up to the door leaning against the frame as she watched Vaas haul Benny down the stairs. She looked back to Raiza, who had tears in her eyes, her arms wrapped around her body.

"It's alright. I'll be back, okay?" She nodded her head and Lunetta ran out after Vaas, worried the entire time for the only man she could ever call her friend. "Vaas! Stop this!" Vaas didn't listen he pushed Benny out of the large red doors and when they were a few feet away kicked him onto his knees.

"Vaas, I'm sorry. What did I fucking do wrong?! I'm your friend. It was just a kiss."

"She isn't yours to play around with Hermano." Vaas pulled his gun out and just as he raised it to Benny's head, Lunetta came running out of the warehouse, hopping up and wrapping her arms around Vaas's neck. Vaas dropped the gun and reached up to grab Lunetta's arms swinging her around. She grunted when her threw a fist at her from in front hitting her head hard. Benny quickly got up and grabbed the gun, pointing it at Vaas, who suddenly froze and stared up at him. Lunetta was still hanging from Vaas's back, her hair was frazzled and her mind was with it. Her wide eyes looked to the gun that Benny was pointing at Vaas, she shook her head.

"Get off of him and come here Lunetta." She hopped off of Vaas and taking those ten steps towards Benny she pondered. She thought of Vaas and she thought of Benny and unlike Vaas, Benny had no control over himself. Benny was about to shoot his leader and assume his position, but she knew no matter how could Benny was that couldn't happen. Vaas might have been abusive to the people, but the more she thought about... He did things for them, he contributed to their society, what was once his way of life. Benny was not a leader like Vaas and Lunetta had to make a hard choice. Vaas or Benny and she made that choice... She looked up at Benny as he walked over to him.

"I'm sorry." Benny didn't know what she meant by that.

"It's not your fault." She stopped in front of him and a split second later, she snatched the gun from his hand and elbowed him in the face. Benny fell back onto the ground and she pointed the gun at him, unwavering in her aim. Benny sat back on one arm and put his fingers to his dripping nose, he looked down at the blood on them and then back up to Lunetta.

"Lunetta this is our chance... If we kill Vaas, the island will be free." She closed her eyes, she had leaned a lot about the people in the world. She went from someone who mostly kept to themselves to someone who talked to everyone. She sniffled back tears as they streamed down her cheeks and the reality was allowed into her mind.

"This island will never be free... No one is free as long as there are people like Vaas around. Killing him won't make you feel any better about yourself." She faced the facts, she couldn't kill someone, she couldn't kill Vaas or Citra or her father as much as she wanted to. Her brother wouldn't want her to get her revenge, he would have wanted her to move on and that's what she needed to do. She lowered the gun and sighed, dropping one hand on the weapon to wipe a tear away. "I am sick of this world. I am sick of the fact that whenever someone cares there is always going to be someone that hurts them more doing it." She looked over at Vaas, who was still standing a few feet away watching. "I am sick of men who are greedy and lustful. Of men who are murderers and rapists, who steal and pillage."

"Lun-"

"Shut up!" She yelled at Benny, turning her attention back to him. "Let me finish." She grumbled out those three words. "I use to be a girl that went hunting every morning, she worked at a car garage throughout the day, and she took care of her brother. A girl who earned the tattou that marked her skin, who didn't resort to seduction or violence to get what she needed." Lunetta looked up at the dark blue sky, the sun blending orange into it as it approached the island's center and she bit her bottom lip. "I was taught that the animals in the jungle were dangerous, but really the only dangerous animals are the men..." She shook her head and then looked over to Benny again, who had now stood up from his spot on the ground. "No one is free. It's a man's nature to see and conquer and repeat, everything that follows is up to him, you can't do anything about. You can't kill Vaas... As much as I want him and everyone that has wronged me dead in some way, they are the balance. You will always have men like him and you will always have people like us. You'd be no better than him if you killed him." She rose the gun, pressed the button to release the mag and let it fall flat to the ground. She then threw the gun carelessly to the side and stared up at Vaas. "I don't belong to you or anyone for that matter. Benny and I shared a moment, but it wasn't anything that should matter to you. It didn't matter to me." Benny's expressions dropped as did his heart, but Lunetta pushed it aside. She had had enough of love for one day, Vaas stepped forward to hug her, but she stopped him with a hand to his chest. If she allowed him to embrace her, he would only be doing it to mark his claim in front of Benny and she wasn't his... Or anyone's. "I need some time to think." She stepped off, she walked out of the compound to the sandy shores of Vaas's small island and with the main island in her sights. She sat down into the sand and watched as the sun continued to rise up higher and higher. She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

These few days she had witnessed many things and understanding them was difficult for her, but now that she has, she has found her purpose. She doesn't want to kill anyone anymore, she still hates Citra and her Arakyat, but that is what made her. She still carries intricate tattoos that darken in the light and glisten with her sweat and in these years she has lost their meaning. Citra didn't make her, the Arkayat did, she was given these tattoos in response to her strength, to her undying care for others, to her courage that would never break her free spirit. They made her what she was, a tiger and like a tiger she would live the rest of her days in solitude, with nothing but her strips to parade around her jungle to roam. She didn't need her father, her brother, her mother, or Benny. She was an individual and her purpose was to be that individual... To continue on with life and not hold things to herself like she has always done.

She exhaled a deep breath and with it alleviated all her stress. She didn't care about her deranged family anymore, about her previous task at hand, about her future, and her past. She actually felt relieved, she felt an enormous weight be lifted from her chest. She just needed to get Raiza and find a new home on the island, she needed to continue working at the garage and go with the natural order of things. Being here with the Pirates wasn't her place and she hoped Vaas would just let her leave, she hoped her father would forget his guilt and never speak to her again. But for now... She didn't worry about those things, this time instead of staring into the sunset she stared into a sunrise beginning the dawn of a new day with a new life. She smiled slightly to herself. There was one thing she had learned when dealing with her recent situations and had she realized it before she would have came to a much greater understanding:

 _There are two kinds of things to think about when you are in the world. You have the good things and the bad things. And the people that do the bad things sometimes outweigh the people that do the good things, but in the end they will find balance. The bad things can't be that bad forever and when they are good... You just smile... You smile because like those bad things, the sky can't stay dark forever and the night is always dark... But the day is always bright._


	24. Author's Note

**Dear Reader,**

 **Thanks to a lot of hard work, I have finished revising this story and editing it as much as possible to fit in case with Tiger at Sunrise Part Two. **

**For those interested Part Two is going to take place five years ahead of this time mainly because there will be some new characters that get involved. In Part Two I have created what I consider the perfect Volker Family Recipe ito coordinate with Part Two's Volkerness and a lot of Montenegro loving. I have even created a time line going along with the story that will be shown in later chapters to provide a better explanation for events that occurred Pre-Tiger in the Sunset that have a lot to do with some of the events in the plot line.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed Part One and I also hope you all enjoy Part Two!**

 **Thank you all for your support. :)**

 **P.S. Should Part Three take place in Kyrat?**


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